Friends
by NoisePollution
Summary: When Max and Fang almost kiss at an end of summer party, their friendship is changed drastically, the question is, is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? Max isn't sure, but she knows that she does't want to ruin things with Fang.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I haven't been on fanfiction in FOREVER and I apologize. I had 2 stories up a LONGGG time ago but I've deleted them due to the fact that I haven't been on here in over a year. I'm on summer vacation and I have a lot of free time and I haven't written in a long time. But I am currently in the middle of moving so things are a bit hectic so be patient with me guys. If I make any major mistakes please tell me (without being an ass about it) because sometimes I don't catch them. Also, I'm Canadian and every time I've tried to write about anyone living anywhere in the U.S. I've messed it up. So I'm not going to specify where they live in this story. Anyways that's enough rambling for now! Enjoy guys! :)**

**Max=16**

**Fang=16**

**Iggy=16**

**Ella=15**

**Nudge=15**

**Gazzy=8**

**Angel=7**

**Dylan=16**

* * *

**Max POV**

It's 5AM, and how do I know that it's 5AM? Because I'm awake. No teenager should be awake at 5AM on summer vacation.

This is Fang's fault.

I blame his stupid black hair and his gorgeous eyes and his super hot-I mean...um...muscular chest? I sound creepy.

He is to blame for my consciousness this early in the morning.

I guess I should explain.

My name's Max, Maximum Ride. Don't call me Maximum, or you won't be able to call me anything ever again.

I'm 16 and I live with my Mom (Valencia) and my younger sister Ella, who's 15.

Now, let me explain why I'm awake at 5 in the morning. We have to go back about 8 hours (that's 9:00PM for all you guys and gals out there that are worse at math than I am).

My sister and her best friend Nudge wanted to go to this end of summer party at Iggy's house. I'm not much of a party person, as you can probably already tell.

Somehow I got dragged into taking them to this party and babysitting them all night long. I wanted to stay home and watch Netflix but NOOOO because that's considered 'anti-social'.

Ella's always had a thing for Iggy, so I guess my mom didn't want her going to a party where she could be alone with him. On the bright side my best friend, Iggy's twin brother (also known as Fang) would be there.

So here I am standing outside in Iggy's backyard making sure Nudge and Ella don't drown in the swimming pool when-well, let me just take you on a dramatic flash back to 9 hours ago.

_-9 PM-_

"Max go have fun! You don't need to stand here and watch us all night long" Ella sigh's as I trail behind her and Nudge to the pool.

"Ella, I'm not leaving you two alone back here with a bunch of drunk idiots who want to get in bed with you" I roll my eyes as some jock bumps into me.

Ella and Nudge just grumbl and walk off to socialize.

I walk over to the fence farthest away from the pool in an attempt to be able to keep my eye on Nudge and Ella and not get splashed, but that didn't really work out.

I'm scanning the backyard for Fang when I hear a voice.

"Having a good time?" I hear an oddly familiar voice say next to me.

"I am now that you're here Dylan" I say with a sarcastic smile on my face. He just chuckles.

Next thing I know Dylan has me over his shoulder and is carrying me towards the pool.

"Dylan Jacobs you put me down right now or I swear to god I'll-I'll...I don't know what I'll do but you wont like it!" I yells as I punch his back and try to free myself, unsuccessfully I might add.

I can practically feel a smirk making it's way onto his face.

Dylan and I have never really, gotten along I guess you could say. I've known him since I was in the 7th grade and not once have we ever been friends.

And it seems that he's made it his mission to inconvenience me whenever possible.

"I swear if you throw me in that pool with my phone in my pocket you'll be buying me a knew one you asswagon!" I yell.

Then I feel his hand taking my phone out of my pocket. Crap.

"Out of excuses yet Ride?" he laughs as we get to the edge of the pool.

He takes me off of his shoulder and now had me in his arms bridal style.

"Um Dylan, are you going to put me down?" I ask.

"What? Oh yeah right, I'll put you down" he says as he drops me into the pool.

The only thing going through my mind as I hit the water is that I'm going to kill Dylan. Then bring him back to life and make him clean up the mess and kill him again.

I surface to see Dylan standing at the edge of the pool laughing.

"ZOMG Max why are you swimming in your clothes? You shouldn't be insecure because you have a rockin' body like seriously I wish I had a body like that. I'm glad you decided to loosen up and party a little though because man are you uptight. Ella's always telling me how y-" I cut her off my putting my hand over her mouth.

I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was wearing a loose fitting white t-shirt and it was wet.

"I was thrown in here by El-Jackass over there" I said pointing at Dylan as I climbed out of the pool and crossed my arms over my chest.

I walked up to Dylan and glared at him, all he did was smile and put his arm around my shoulder.

"I think you should take your hands off her" I hear a voice behind Dylan say.

He turns around and comes face to face with none other than Fang. Fang's always been the quiet type, never really talked much to anyone except me.

"Dude chill, she doesn't mind right?" Dylan said "Actually I do mind" I say, shoving his arm off of my shoulder.

"Come on Max I'll take you to get some dry clothes" Fang says eyeing my wet t-shirt. "Thanks" I say as I follow him into his house.

We walk upstairs and I can barely hear the loud music from outside anymore.

Fang opens his bedroom door and bows, "after you m'lady" he says grinning at me. It's hard to think about being mad at Dylan when Fang's talking like that with a stupid grin on his face.

I hold back my grin and walk through the doorway. I look around at the familiar white/beige walls and the dark brown furniture.

He starts rifling through his drawers, presumably looking for something for me to wear.

One side of his room has wall to wall book shelves, I recognize lots of the books he has sitting on them, he always let's me borrow whatever I want so I've read most of them.

His bed is covered in black sheets and a black comforter, I've known him my whole life (we've always gone to the same school) and all he's ever worn is black.

A couple shelves are filled with vinyl records along with a record player next to them.

Fang hands me a pile of clothes, I walk into his bathroom, just as I'm about to close it I hear Fang yell "By the way, nice bra".

"Idiot" I grumble, even though I'm smirking.

I get out of my wet clothes and slip on a large, oversized black t-shirt that goes down to my knees.

I haven't been given any pants but I guess that makes sense since his shirt is practically a dress on me anyways.

His shirt smells good, like laundry detergent. Wait, why am I sniffing Fang's shirt? I should be out there yelling at Dylan for throwing me into that stupid pool, not in here smelling my best friend's clothes.

I walk out of the bathroom to find that Fang has no shirt on. Fang's room has always been the hottest room in his house, so he never has a shirt on.

I'm used to it but damn I really hope he never puts a shirt on again because he is so-nothing. He's so nothing.

He grabs my wet clothes from my hands, "I'll go throw these in the dryer, wait here, we wouldn't anyone to see you walking around without pants on or they might get suspicious" he says winking at me and walking out the door.

I laugh at his remark because we've been best friends forever and the idea of us being anything more than that would be weird.

I sit down on his bed and then lay back and close my eyes. Soon I feel something, or rather someone, plop down next to me.

I open my eyes and look over at Fang "Why does Iggy always let idiots who like to throw young teenage girls into swimming pools come to his parties?" I ask.

Fang just smirks "I didn't think you were coming tonight" he says. "My mom made me come to keep an eye on Ella and Nudge" I sigh.

"You're not doing a very good job" he points out. I smack his arm "It's not my fault I was tossed into your pool".

"Aw is my little Maxie upset?" Fang asks giving me a pouty face.

I pretend to start crying "Fang I'm just so upset, I don't understand why he was so mean and I just-" I burst into fake sobs and turn away from Fang.

"Woah, woah Max are you actually crying?" he asks in a worried voice while touching my shoulder to try and get me to face him.

I laugh "You fall for that every time" I say turning around to face him.

I'm suddenly aware of how close our faces were.

Fang starts leaning closer until were only inches apart. What were we doing? Is he going to kiss me? Wait, why am I leaning in, this isn't happening.

Fang's like my brother right? Kissing him would be weird, but, I want to kiss him so bad right now.

I hear Fang's door open "Woah guys put a sock on the door or something" I hear Iggy say.

We quickly separate "Shut up Ig, what do you want?" Fang asks.

"The party's over and I need, help cleaning up..." he trails off realizing that I was only wearing one of Fang's shirts.

"Also Nudge and Ella have been looking for you Max, but you should probably put some pants on before you go find them.

Iggy smirks and close's the door behind him.

Fang chuckles, "I'll go get your clothes" he says as he get's up and walks out the door.

When Fang comes back I'm anxious to leave so I quickly slip on my pants and grab the rest of my dry clothes and practically run out of the door.

I walk into the backyard to find Ella and Nudge sitting by the pool "Max where have you been? Why are you wearing Fang's shirt?" Ella asks.

"Oh em gee! You guys totally hooked up didn't you? Thank god I've been shipping it for so long and it's finally happening ah! Zomg on Halloween you guys can wear those cute couples costumes and it'll be so cute I'll actually die becau-"

"Nudge, were just friends" I cut her off, "Can we go now?" I ask.

So Nudge and Ella get up and said goodbye to all their friends and we walk next door, yes, we live right next door to Fang and Iggy, I know it's kinda cliché.

The minute I walk through the front door I go straight to my room, take off my jeans and hop into bed wearing only Fang's shirt.

I was smelling his stupid shirt again, dammit.

_-5 AM-_

And that ladies and gents is why I'm up at 5 in the morning. I could't sleep because all I could think about was my almost kiss with Fang.

It was kind of impossible not to think about it when I was wear his stupid fancy smelling shirt.

Do I like my best-friend?

Crap.

**A/N Well, sorry the chapters so short but it's now 3AM and I'm too tired to write anymore and I reallllyy wanted to post this tonight. I'll hopefully be updating again within the next couple days. Lemme know what you guys think! Sorry if it's poorly edited, I'll go over it again once I've had some sleep and fix any mistakes I missed. Review and tell me your thoughts guys! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N You guys are awesome :))) Well all 7 of you haha. Thank you so much for the reviews I really appreciate it! I'm living in between 3 houses right now while I'm moving and it's giving one of my dogs MAJOR ****anxiety so I'm sorry if my chapters are short and if I don't update much for the next 2 weeks. However I am updating for the 2nd day in a row now so yay for me! And in reply to fleeceinabox, I'm a sucker for stories like this which is why I'm writing one :p Anyways, I'll stop rambling and let you guys read! Enjoy! :)  
**

* * *

**Max POV**

_I'm coming out of my cage_

_And I've been doing just fine_  
_Gotta gotta be down_  
_Because I want it all_

_It started out with a kiss_  
_How did it end up like this?_

Ugh. Why is my phone ringing at 8AM? I've only been asleep for what? 3 hours?

I smile as I look at my phone and see Fang's name on the screen, remembering that he's the one who picked out my ringtone.

"You better have a damn good reason for waking me up so early Fangles" I say as I answer the phone.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me Fangles"

"And I thought we'd established that I don't like to take other people's orders?" I grinn as I hear him laugh on the other end.

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to come over, my bookshelf is a mess and I need help re-organizing"

"You need me to re-organize your bookshelf at 8 in the morning" I ask skeptically.

"Aw Max come on you know I wake up super early I can't help it! And I'm boooorreedd"

"But Fang it's 8 in the mor-"

"Maxxxiiieeeeee come onnnnnn" Fang whine's.

"I'll be over in 10 minutes" I sigh even though I'm still laughing at the tone of his voice.

"Yay! See ya soon Maxie!"

I hang up the phone and force myself out of bed. Fang has always been an early riser, it's really annoying.

I put on a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt and throw my hair up into a bun. What? It's 8:00 in the morning and I'm just going over to Fang's, there's no point in getting all fancy.

I quickly brush my teeth and decide that my make up from last night (which Ella and Nudge made me wear might I add) looks presentable enough, not that it matters.

I grab my phone and leave a note on the kitchen counter for Ella telling her where I'd be. My mom is already at work, she's a veterinarian.

After putting on my red Vans I walk out the door and over to Fang's house, where I'm greeted by my best friend standing with the front door open grinning at me.

"Nice sweatpants, designer?" he asks, making fun of my sloppy appearance.

I just roll my eyes and walk past him into his house, kicking my shoes off into the hall closet.

"Fang, considering you're the one that woke me up this early you're also going to have to be the one that feeds me breakfast"

"Well, I think everyone knows that you aren't capable of cooking anything for yourself..." Fang says as he starts pulling things out of the kitchen cupboards.

"Hey! I can make Mr. Noodles in the microwave...sort of" I laugh at the memory of Fang yelling at me for 'over-cooking- his cup noodles back in 8th grade.

15 minutes later Fang plops down next to me with a plate full of chocolate chip pancakes.

And after eating the entire plate, while having Fang judge me the entire time for eating so fast, we walk up to his room.

"Geez, did a hurricane come in here and attack your room?" I ask as I look over the various books lying all over the place.

"Haha, very funny. My books weren't in alphabetical order and it was really starting to get on my nerves", he's always been very particular about how his books are arranged, what can I say? The dude has a passion.

"Is Fangy upset because his books aren't organized?" I ask giving him a pouty face.

"Yeah, yeah very funny Max, just help me before I throw all these books at your head"

"Why Fang! I can't believe that you're threatening me! Your my very bestest friend in the entire universe! I thought we had something special!" I cry out dramatically.

Fang put's his arm around me, I feel butterflies in my stomach. Ignore them Max, I think to myself, this is ridiculous, if you like Fang you would've felt something years ago, right?

"I'd never _really _hurt you Max, maybe just rough you up a bit" he says laughing as he starts sorting books into piles.

_-3 hours later-_

"Finally" I exhale as I lay back onto his bed, "That took forever" I groan.

"Um, Max"

"What?"

"We still have to go through all my vinyls..." Fang trails off very quietly.

"I'm going to put a bomb down your pants Fang" I say in all seriousness as I haul myself off of his bed and over to the corner of his room where he's sitting surrounded by vinyls.

"It'd be a privilege to have the great, Maximum ride blow up my pants" Fang says.

I laugh and start sorting the records into piles based on the first letter of the artist's name.

Then I come across a particular record that makes me want to break down into tears and crawl into a hole.

Yep, you heard right, there are some things that can upset the great Maximum Ride.

"Max? You okay?" I hear Fang ask from his spot across from me.

"Max?" he asks again.

"Oh Max I'm so sorry" he says realizing what I'm looking at, he crawls next to me and puts his arm around me while I cry into his shoulder.

**Fang's POV**

I should've hidden that record after what happened.

Let me explain.

In the 9th grade, Max had a boyfriend named Sam. I never really liked him, not because he was a particularly bad guy, but because I'd been in love with Max since I was old enough to realize that girls didn't have cooties.

She loved him, she really did, which is why she blamed herself for his death.

Sam had always seemed kind of carefree and happy around everyone, so everyone was shocked when he killed himself.

Max especially.

And this record she was holding, was The World Won't Listen by the Smiths. It had the first song Max and Sam had ever danced to together, Asleep.

I guess you could say that it held some sort of special meaning to them, the entire album actually.

Max and Sam were pretty different, musically, and they finally found and artist they both loved, all through 9th grade it's all they'd listened too.

But during the last month of school, Max was called into the office and told that Sam's parents had found him laying in his bed with an empty bottle of pills in his hand.

Max kind of just shut down. For weeks she just sat in her room, not eating or talking to anyone. When she finally did come out of her room, she spent all of her time crying into my arms.

That summer was miserable for her. And it kills me just thinking about it.

Sam didn't leave a note, there where no warning signs, not any that anyone had noticed anyways, he was just gone within the blink of an eye.

It's been a little over a year since it happened, we're about to start grade 11 and I think Max still thinks about it more than she'd like to admit.

So that's why she's now in my lap crying into my shirt.

"Shh, Max it's okay, it's okay" I whisper into her ear while I hug her and rub circles on her back, like I always do when she's was upset.

I'm not going to lie, I'm still in love with Max. So it's not like I didn't enjoy having her so close to me, I just wish that it wasn't because she's in pain.

Max finally run's out of tears and just sit's in my lap sniffling.

"It's all my fault you know" she whispers quietly "I could've stopped him".

"Max, we've been over this, there's nothing you could've done" I sigh, I wish she'd stop blaming herself.

"I should've noticed there was something wrong, I could've helped him" she says as she lays her head on my shoulder.

"Max, he was sick, everyone missed it, not just you. You can't blame yourself, alright? He loved you, and he wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life blaming yourself for something that neither of you could control" I say as I wipe a tear off of her cheek.

Max just nod's her head, too tired to argue, and close's her eyes.

I sit there for five more minutes rubbing circles on her back and notice that she's fallen asleep.

I smile, she look's cute when she sleeps.

Finally I decide to pick her up, I gently place her on my bed and toss a blanket over her.

I kiss her forehead and leave the room, giving her some time to rest.

If only Max could see what I see in her.

**Max POV**

I wake up in a strangely familiar bed. Wait, how did I end up in Fang's bed? God am I comfy, Fang's bed smells like him, geez, I really need to get over this whole 'sniffing stuff that belong to my best friend thing' it's kinda creepy. I close my eyes again just as I hear Fang enter the room.

"What time is it?" I aske as I yawn.

"2:00" Fang answer's as he put a glass of water down next to me on his nightstand.

"Really? Wow" I take a sip of water.

"You feeling any better?" Fang ask's, his eyes filled with concern.

"As long as I have you around I'll be ok" woah, that was deep.

Fang smile's and stand's up "Come on" he says.

"What?"

"Were going to go do something fun"

"Does this require me getting out of my sweatpants and putting on my big girl clothes?" I ask.

"Only if you want to" he shrug's "I guess it doesn't really matter".

* * *

After going home and changing into some light blue, tight fitting jeans with tears in them and leaving my white t-shirt on, Fang and I start walking, to where? I don't know yet.

We're currently in the middle of a forest, kinda creepy but hey, it's not like Fang's planning on killing me, or is he?

Fang did tell me to bring my bathing suit so I'm assuming that I'm going to need that for something.

"Where are we going Fang?" I whine as I trail beside him.

"You'll know soon enough"

"But I want to know noowww" I say as I tug on his sleeve.

Fang just get's a stupid smirk on his face and keep's walking.

After 5 more minutes of walking we reach a clearing in the woods, I see a beautiful lake in front of me, along with a dock and a rope tied to a tree branch hanging over the water.

"How'd you find this place?" I ask.

"I have my ways" Fang grin's as he pulls off his shirt.

"Well?" he asks.

"What?"

"Are you coming in?" he says.

I just roll my eyes and take off my clothes, I'm wearing my bathing suit underneath so it doesn't really matter.

It's just a plain black bikini, I guess I've picked up on Fang's colour choice over the years.

Fang and I stand at the edge of the dock, "are you jumping in?" I ask.

"Are you?" he says as a smirk plays it's way onto his face.

"Maybe" I say as I put my hands in his back and push him into the water.

I'm standing there laughing my ass off at Fang's expression and the next thing I know, I feel his hand around my ankle pulling me in with him.

I feel a rush of cold water hit me and then I surface.

"I hate you so much" I say jokingly as I try to get all the water I'd accidentally swallowed out of my lungs.

"Love you too Max" Fang says as he splash's my face with water.

"Oh you're going to get it"

"Oh yeah?"

"Is that a challenge?" I ask.

"Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't"

"You're dead" I whisper as I swim after him attempting to get water in his face.

"Catch me if you can Maxie poo!" he yells as he swim's faster.

I decide to get a little creative, I dive under the water so he cant't see me. As far as I can tell through my blurry vision, Fang in floating in one spot trying to figure out where I've gone, perfect.

I slowly swim towards him until I'm right beside his legs and then splash up right in front of his face.

"I got you now Fangles!" I yell as I splash water in his face.

"Oh Max, shit just got serious" he says with a deadly look in his eyes.

"Aw crap" I exhale, I'm screwed.

* * *

After 2 hours of fooling around and swinging off a rope into the water, we've finally tired ourselves out and are now sitting on the dock next to each other.

"You know, when you went under the water and popped up in front of me, I thought that you'd drowned" Fang laughs.

"Is little Fangy worried about me?" I ask in a baby voice.

Fang sighs "I'm always worried about you Max" he says with a sad look in his eyes and an honest tone in his voice.

I look back at him with the same look, "I know you are, but you shouldn't be" I say as I rest my head on his shoulder.

"Max, I'm your best friend, it's my job to worry about you" he quietly whispers.

I smile, I know Fang's constantly worried about me, especially after what happened with Sam. I just wish he would stop, I hate upsetting him.

I turn to look at Fang and suggest that we start heading back since it's getting a little late, but I'm incredibly aware of how close our faces are.

I gulp "We should...um..." I can't finish my sentence, all I can do is stare at his lips.

"Uh huh" Fang says as he lean's in and close's the gap between our lips.

Oh god his lips are so soft. Fang wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer.

I can feel his chest press against mine. I run my arms up his back and into his hair.

I'm kissing a god right now.

I'm kissing a god who also happens to be my best friend, my best friend that I don't want to lose.

What am I doing? Why am I running my hands through his gorgeous, soft, black, perfect hair? I should be stopping this before I ruin everything.

I gently put my hand on Fang's shoulder and separate us, despite the fact that all I want to do is continue making out with him.

"Um.." I mumble as I stand up and begin to put on my clothes "We should uh, we should go" I say.

Fang runs a hand through his hair "Yeah, alright".

The walk back to our houses is silent, and not the usual kind of comfortable silence, an uncomfortable silence.

I messed up.

**A/N Hope you guys liked it! I tried to make it a little longer this time! **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Woohoo another update! I'm getting pretty good at this haha, anyways, read on!**

* * *

**Fang's POV**

I can't stop thinking about the kiss. It was perfect, until she pushed me away.

Max and I haven't really been talking for the past three days, or rather, she's been avoiding me.

I can't lose her, but I don't know if I can go much longer without telling her how I feel, it's killing me.

School starts in a week and I don't want to start off the year like this.

I should go talk to her, unless that'll screw things up even more...

I sigh and rubb my hands over my face, I have to go talk to her, make sure everything's alright.

I walk over to Max's house and knock on the door, I'm greeted by Ella.

"Oh, hey Fang! How's it going? I haven't seen you around lately, you're probably here to see Max right? She's in her room, you can just head on up" Ella smile's and let's me in.

"Thanks" I nod and make my way up the stairs to Max's bedroom, geez, I think Ella's been spending a little too much time around Nudge because boy can she talk.

I can hear music coming from Max's room, I smile as I recognize a song by Kings of Leon coming from the other side of the door, I knock and hear the music stop.

"Who is it?"

"I'm here to deliver a pizza," I reply sarcastically "Can I come in?."

"Yeah"

I open the door to see Max sitting on her bed curled up with her laptop, wearing an old dark red hoodie that I recognize as Sam's.

I sit down on next to her "Listen Max I-" she cut's me off.

"I know what you're going to say Fang, we kissed, and it was a mistake and you don't want to ruin our friendship, and neither do I so can we just forget it ever happened?" she asks pleadingly.

My heart's breaking into a million pieces, but I just smile and nod like I agree. Yes, I know I sound like an idiot, and that it's s little over dramatic of me to say my hearts breaking, but I love her, and if you knew her the way that I do you would too.

"Whatchya doin?" I ask as I move over to look at her laptop screen, "Well, I haven't been on tumblr all day if that's what you're asking me" she laughs.

I roll my eyes, Max is always on her laptop doing something, the majority of her time was usually spent on tumblr or Netflix, not that I blame her, Netflix is addicting.

I guess my plan to tell her how I feel is now a no-go since I know how she feels.

At least I still have my best friend.

* * *

**Max's POV**

I'm awake at 7 in the freaking morning, and this time, I'm not up early because of Fang.

You wanna know why I'm awake at such an ungodly hour? It's because today, is the day all teenagers dread. It's the first day of school.

For the next 10 months I'll be doing homework and getting up ridiculously early every morning. Please kill me, it would be so much better than this.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a _little_ over dramatic, but still, I'm definitely not a morning person.

I look down at my phone and see that I have a message from Fang.

_You awake?_

**_No_**

_Haha very funny Max, I'm just checking, you were late for the first day of __school last year AND the year before, remember?  
_

**_Oh hush, I made it there eventually didn't I?_**

_Yeah, halfway through first period..._

**_Stop sassing me and go make yourself pretty Fangles_**

_Shoot! I still have to straighten my hair..._

**_If you were talking to anyone else Fang, they'd think you were serious_**

_I am serious Max, I want to impress all the ladies ;)_

**_I'm sure they'll think you look very pretty _**

_Aw thanks Max! I'll be over soon, see ya._

**_Don't be late!_**

_Yeah, I'M the one that has trouble getting to school on time..._

I roll my eyes and put my phone down, Fang is so quiet around everyone else, is it selfish to say that I like that fact the he's only the outgoing, goofy idiot I know around me?

I'm saying this as his friend, so for all you people out there that think I have a thing for Fang, wipe that thought right out of your brain, because I don't.

Yeah, we kissed once but it was a complete mistake.

I groan and climb out of my warm, comfy bed and open my closet.

I decide that since it's the first day of school I should try and make myself at least a little bit presentable, I usually give up on my appearance after the first week of school.

"Maaaxxxx get up! get up! get up!" I hear Ella yell as she burst's into my room.

"I am up Ells"

"Oh, sorry, I just assumed you'd still be asleep"

"Why does everyone doubt my ability to wake up on time..." I grumble as I pull a pair of blue skinny jeans with holes out of my closet.

Ella crosse's her arms and gives me a pointed look, "touché... now would you get out so I can change?" I ask.

Ella rolls her eyes and walks out of my room, closing the door behind her.

I rifle through my drawers until I find a white t-shirt with thin black stripes on it, it was the least wrinkled thing I could find.

My hair is always such pain to brush so I decide to leave it down in it's natural curls.

I grab my bag and walk down the stairs to the smell of bacon, my mom always takes time off work on our first day of school to make us breakfast.

"Mom, you're a saint" I say as I grab a piece of bacon and stuff it in my mouth, "Max honey I just took that off of the stove it's very hot."

Well, she warned me too late, I'm now pacing around the kitchen fanning myself, not that it's helping, with my mouth half open in an attempt to cool off the bacon before I recieve 3rd degree burns to my tounge.

I hear a knock at the door, perfect timing, I open to door to reveal, yep, you guessed it, Fang along with Iggy and his two younger siblings, Gazzy and Angel.

Fang's mother had had two sets of twins, Fang and Iggy, who are polar opposites, and Gazzy and Angel, who are practically identical. Apparently that's pretty rare.

"Max, what's wrong with your face?" Iggy asks laughing. Fang elbows him in the ribs and rolls his eyes "Are you ready to go?" Fang asks raising an eyebrow.

I nod my head and swallow my bacon "I'm leaving now Mom" I yell as put on my black docs and walk out the door "Alright, have a good first day sweetie!".

Ella had already left early to meet Nudge at school, "Maxie can you walk with me?" Angel looks up at me with puppy dog eyes, damn those eyes.

"Sure Angel" I smile as she wraps her small fingers around my hand, "Did you and Gazzy have fun at summer camp?" I ask "Yes! I got to go camping and I saw the prettiest deer but Gazzy scared it off" Angel whine's.

"Hey! That wasn't my fault!" Gazzy protests, "I'm sure it wasn't buddy" Iggy says as he ruffles Gazzy's hair.

"Sooo...how's Ella been?" Iggy asks shyly, "I haven't seen her much since the party," he trails off.

I raise my eyebrows, "She's been fine...why? Does someone have a wittle cwush on my baby sister?," I ask making a pouty face.

"No" Iggy says as he tries to hide his blush. "Iggy, mommy told us not to lie" Angel says in a dead serious voice.

I start laughing "Oh my god Ig, even your little sister can tell you have the hots for Ella," Fang smirks beside me.

Iggy just glares at me and runs his hands through his strawberry blonde hair "Whatever," he grumbles.

We finally arrive at school and drop Angel and Gazzy off in the building for the younger kids, "Have fun" Fang says as Angel and Gazzy run over to their friends.

The three of us make our way into the school, having already picked up our schedules and locker numbers last week, we head straight to our lockers.

Fang and I always manage to get a locker next to each other, so we head towards them while Iggy goes to his locker which is a little farther down the hallway.

I groan as I start unloading all the things I won't need until after lunch into my locker, "Someone's excited about school," Fang says sarcastically.

"Yeah, so excited I could just die!" I exclaim with a fake grin on my face.

"Come on Max, you get to see me everyday, I think you should be a little more excited"

"Oh Fang, seeing your face is the highlight of my day"

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Fang says as he holds out his arm for me to take.

I close my locker and roll my eyes, taking his arm.

Fang and I have most of our classes together, except for 2nd period, when Fang has grade 12 english (ew) and I have science (also ew).

So that means I have Math 1st period, Science second, English 3rd (grade 11 english, duh) and Music 4th. Which means I have most of my electives next semester, thank god.

Fang and I reach our math class and take our seats near the back of the room, not because we want to be farther away from the teacher, well, not because _Fang _wants to be farther away.

Fang's actually pretty decent at math, it's me that has a problem with numbers. I mean seriously, when am I ever going to need to know how to plot an equation on a graph?

"Max you look miserable" Fang says, although clearly not sympathizing with me because he's obviously holding back a laugh.

"You laugh now, but we'll see how funny it is when I'm calling you at 2 in the morning because I'm still trying to do my math homework and I don't understand it," I snarl.

His grin's wiped right off of his face, ha, serves him right.

* * *

Ugh, finally! I've only had math and science once this semester and I'm already sick of it.

I reach my locker and grab everything I'll need for english and music and then walk towards the cafeteria, the room that contain's the thing I hate most...other teenagers.

Now before you think 'Oh Max that's so anti-social' or 'Stop being so pessimistic' let me just point out that...well...if you went to my school you'd hate everyone too alright?

"Make any new friends?" Iggy asks as I sit down next to him at our lunch table, "Yeah tons, I think the fish in the science room really liked my outgoing and spunky personality" I reply.

"What is this I hear about a spunky personality?" Fang asks as he walks up to our table and sits down next me, "Ig and I here where just discussing how I'm a big ray of sunshine that brightens every room I walk into," I smile.

"Yeah, you brighten the room, but maybe more like a huge ball of fire as apposed to the sun" Nudge says from across the table. "The sun is a huge ball of fire Nudge" Ella says pointedly from her spot next to her, "Yeah yeah, you get my point," Nudge grumbles and continues eating her salad.

About halfway through lunch a short red head wearing black leggings and a maroon t-shirt walks up to our table, "Um, hey Fang, I was just wondering if you wrote down the english homework? I totally spaced out and forgot," she laughs nervously and tuck's a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh yeah, sure thing Lissa, just let me get it out of my bag..." Fang trails off as he starts rifling through his backpack, it's been less that and day and he's already losing things.

"I actually have to run so do you mind if I give you my number and you can just text it to me?"

"Sure" Fang shrugs and hands her his phone and Lissa types in her number "Great, talk to you later," Lissa smiles and walks out of the cafeteria.

"Ooohh someone likes youuu" I nudge Fang in the ribs with my elbow, "What? Lissa?" Fang asks with a clueless look on his face, "No, Iggy, yes Lissa," I answer, god, boys could be so oblivious sometimes.

"Hey, don't imply that I have a crush on my own brother to make a sarcastic remark" Iggy says with a mouthful of food, "Incest isn't cool dude".

"OMG Fang a grade 12 has a crush on you that's so cute! She's actually super pretty too like I'm kind of jealous, I mean I've always shipped you and Max together because it's so obvi that you're totally head over heels for her but I could ship you and Lissa. Would your ship name be Lang or Fissa? They both sound stupid so I guess we'll have to find something better, and omg wouldn't it be totally amaze-balls if Iggy finally asked out Ella and then guys could go on double dates, plus you'd be dating a girl a year older than you and all the popular guys would look up to you and then all of us would get super popular and everyone would worship us and I-" Ella slaps a hand over Nudge's mouth.

"Nudge, take a breath in between sentences," I laugh.

"Sorry..." Nudge blushes and puts a hand over her mouth.

"Ew, the bells ringing, time for another 2 periods of hell," Iggy groans as we all stand up to make our way to our respective classes.

* * *

**Fang's POV**

"Finally my favourite class of the day!" Max grins ear to ear as we make our way to the music room.

I can understand her excitement, our music teacher, Mr. Walters, is probably one of the coolest teachers on the planet. He let's the vocal students drink tea during class because it's good for their vocal chords. He let's other students have tea too as long as we stay away from the instruments.

We enter the class to find all the chairs arranged in rows in front of the small stage at the centre of the room, off to the side wings of the room are all the other instruments, our class combines all kinds of musical students to teach us how to work with other musicians.

I just take this class because Max begged me to, and I'm not half bad at guitar, according to Max that is.

"Alright student's, settle down and take your seats," Mr. Walters says from his spot in the middle of the stage.

Max, deciding it's a good idea, drags me to sit beside her in the front row of the class.

"Hello everyone, for those of you that don't know me, I'm Mr. Walters, and for those of you that do, welcome back!" he exclaims with a smile on his face.

"Now today, we will all be performing something, and don't use the excuse that you don't know any songs by heart because I bet this entire class could recite Wrecking Ball on the spot," he says as the class laughs.

"Whether you play an instrument or sing, it does't matter, you can sing the national anthem or your ABC's for all I care, just show me what you got!".

After listening to 5 people play/sing I could tell Max was getting a little nervous, she's amazing, there's no doubt, but she always get's the jitters before performing, even if it's just in front of our music class.

"Alright who's next...ah, Max! Nice to see you back in my class this semester, get on up there!," he gestures at the stage.

Max has an anxious smile on her face as she walks on stage and up to the piano in the corner, she clear's her throat and begin's to sing.

_Pick it up, pick it all up. _

_And start again. _

_You've got a second chance, _

_you could go home. _

_Escape it all. It's just irrelevant._

_It's just medicine. It's just medicine._

Her voice sound's amazing.

_You could still be, what you want to, _

_What you said you were, when I met you._

Max has always been good at capturing the emotions that come with a song, it sends shivers down my spine.

_You've got a warm heart, _

_you've got a beautiful brain. _

_But it's disintegrating, _

_from all the medicine,_

_from all the medicine, _

_from all the medicine. Medicine._

Max has everyones full, undevided attention. By the end of the song everyone is completely mesmerized.

Max was a terrible singer when we were younger, but over time I guess she practiced a lot, I know she took voice lessons, and boy did she sound good. I know that as her best friend I'm supposed to say stuff like this, but Max really does have talent.

I love the way she captures your attention so easily by just singing, when she sing's you can see her slip into the music, she feel's it with every bone in her body and I think that for a lot of people that's something that's not easy to accomplish.

Max bows before climbing down from the stage and reclaiming her seat next to me, "How was I?" she asks wringing her hands together, "Are you kidding me? You were amazing".

She was amazing. She _is _amazing.

* * *

**Alrighty that's all I have the energy to write for tonight! For all of you that don't know the song was Medicine by Daughter, who's also an INCREDIBLY talented group of people so I suggest you check em out because their music sends shivers down my spine. Also, I did just read over the ENTIRE thing and fix all the mistakes (I hope) but it's 3AM so I did the best I could :p**


	4. Chapter 4

** PLEASE READ THIS! A/N So sorry guys! Things have been insane for me, I finally moved into my new house and we hadn't hooked up the wifi yet so I had no way to update, but (finally) my parents had the dude come in and set up the wifi so I can finally update (and watch Netflix again holla) anyways sorry if this is short, I'm still busy unpacking and re-organizing stuff etc. Also, if you haven't heard, Robin Williams committed suicide yesterday (August 11th) and I just want to say that it's terrible to go through that sort of thing, especially if you're a family member or close friend. As someone who has gone through depression (still am) first hand and has had many people close to me go through it as well I'd like to say that you're not alone, so make sure everyone you're close to knows that, and make sure you know that. If you need help don't be afraid to reach out and get it, also I'm always here if needed. No one should get to a point where they think harming themselves is the only way out. It happens so often now, I find that it's often the people you'd never expect to be depressed or suicidal that are so make sure you check in with your friends every once and a while and make sure everything's okay, because I know how much it sucks worrying that you could lose someone. Now, on a less serious note, I might not update for another week after this since I'm so super busy, but I'll try my best, enjoy! :)**

* * *

**Max's POV**

I throw my bag into my room, not really paying any attention as to where, and throw myself onto my bed. Man, if I could just sleep all day everyday my life would be good.

I get up and make my way over to my bag and pick it up, deciding to do my homework now and get it over with.

I don't have much work to do anyways, just some basic review from last semester.

* * *

After 30 minutes of agonizingly painful homework I slam my binder shut and throw it back into my bag, I make my way downstairs to get a snack.

I open the fridge and smile when I see a container full of peas (what? they're good...don't be judgy) I grab them and close the fridge.

I turn around and run into a human wall, a wall that smells like laundry detergent and fresh air, "Don't do that!" I shriek, hitting Fang in the chest.

"Do what? Breathe?" Fang smirks.

"You know what I mean...jackass" I grumble as I take a seat on the couch and open my peas.

**(A/N yes i know the whole "do what? ****breathe?" thing is overdone but it's a classic line i had to use)**

"Is Maximum Ride eating" Fang pauses to gasp "VEGETABLES?!" he cries, "Yes" I reply, breaking some out of the shell and popping them into my mouth.

Fang just chuckles and sits down next to me, grabbing some out of the container, "Is Fang Walker eating" this time I pause to gasp "VEGETABLES?!" I yell with an outraged tone in my voice.

"Yes" Fang mimics me and pops some into his mouth, god I want to kiss his mou-... pretend I didn't just think that.

I roll my eyes and punch his arm "I don't sound like that" I grumble, "Sound like what?" Fang asks batting his eyelashes and making hid voice go even higher than it was before.

I start laughing so hard that I choke on my peas, I decide to have a little fun, I start coughing louder "I..can't... breathe..." I say as I pretend to gasp for air.

"Max? Are you okay?" Fang says, I just shake my head, coughing louder. "oh my god Max'' Fang says as he starts patting my back in an attempt to get me to stop 'choking'.

I stop coughing and look up at him and smile "Gotchya" I grin, "I hate you" Fang glares, "You love me" I smile and eat more peas.

Fang gives me a small smirk but doesn't say anything, then, I hear his phone ding "Ohh Mr. Popular" I tease as I pick up his phone.

Fang grabs his phone out of my hand as I laugh "Who is it?" I ask casually as I finish off my food "No one" he replies typing something into his phone.

"Aw come onnnn Fangypoo" I say and grab his phone, "Hey give that ba-" I cut Fang off "oohh Lissaa" I coo as I hand his phone back to him.

"You should ask her out" I say.

"Why?"

"Because, she obviously likes you, and it's not liked there's anyone else standing in her way, or yours"

"I guess not..." Fang trails off.

"Plus, as Nudge put it earlier 'she's super pretty' and it's not like she'll say no" I shrug and stand up to put the empty container into the dishwasher.

Fang just shrugs "Maybe" he says.

* * *

**Fang's POV**

It's clear that Max doesn't feel the same way about me that I feel about her, maybe I should ask out Lissa. At least she likes me, maybe she'll help me forget about Max.

Right now, it's 2AM and Max is asleep next to me, since the first week of school is over we decided to have a movie marathon. Max fell asleep about halfway through the third movie.

I look over at her, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath. Her sun streaked hair is lying messily over her shoulders and she has her cheek resting on her palm.

I stand up and grab her favourite knit beige blanket from off of her window seat and cover her with it, since she's asleep on the floor in a bean bag chair I pick her up and carry her to her room, laying her down on her bed.

I start to leave the room when I hear Max's voice behind me, "Fang" she mumbles groggily "Stay" she pleads.

Surprised by Max's request I walk towards the bed and lay down next to her on top of the covers, she snuggles closer to me, heat radiating off of her.

I wrap my arm around her shoulders and rest my head on top of hers. Max and I used to do this all time, especially after she lost Sam, she couldn't sleep without me next to her.

The reason I'm so surprised is that she hasn't asked for me to stay in a long time, and for all you perverts out there no, nothing ever happened, we're just friends.

I close my eyes, Max was so close to me now I could feel her heart beat. I really need to get over this whole 'being in love' with Max thing, because I know it'll never happen.

I feel Max throw her arm over my chest and bury her head farther into the crook of my neck. Smiling at her closeness, I start to drift off as well, until I'm too tired to think coherent thoughts.

* * *

I wake up to find that Max is still asleep next to me, I look at the clock on her nightstand, it reads 10:30AM. For me, this is considered sleeping in late. Max's mom has been working more lately, she never used to work on the weekends, but now she does so she isn't home.

I think Max told me that Ella slept over at Nudge's last night, so we were all alone.

I get up slowly, making sure not to wake Max, and pull her blanket back over her shoulders since it had fallen off in her sleep.

When I reach the kitchen I blink my eyes, adjusting to the light streaming in through the kitchen windows and start making breakfast.

Surprisingly, Max actually has all the ingredients I need to make her favourite breakfast, which is bacon (extra crispy) with potatoes and scrambled eggs.

And no, it isn't weird that I know Max's favourite breakfast and how she likes it cooked, everyone knows their best friends favourite food.

After I've rinsed the potatoes, I start cutting them into small wedges and throw them into a bowl. After they've all been chopped up I mix in all the spices necessary and spread them out on a tray and throw them into the oven.

**(A/N Where I get these they're called home fries, basically just chopped up potatoes wedges with ****seasoning, ****I've never actually made them before so forgive me if I'm getting it wrong).**

I set the timer and start cooking the bacon, when I hear the soft sound of Max's feet on the floor and she enters the kitchen. Her hair is messy, and the sleeve of her t-shirt is falling off of her shoulder, she yawns and rubs her eyes, trying to wake up.

I smile "Morning Maxie dearest" I say as I start cracking eggs into a bowl, "If you continue to call me Maxie I'll need to start calling you Fangypoo, in public" Max's glare lacks all it's usual fire since she's still trying to wake up.

"Something smells good" she says, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, I'm making your favourite" I say as I flip the bacon over in the pan.

"You know me too well..." Max grins and gets up to grab two plates and two glasses from the cupboard. She fills one glass with orange juice for me, and the other with apple, for herself.

"I still don't get how you drink apple juice" I shudder at the memory of me drinking so much apple juice that I threw up, hey, I was eight gimme a break.

"I can drink it because I didn't throw a bunch of it up on the water slide at the zoo when we were eight" Max says giving me a pointed look.

I frown and put on Max's mom's pink oven mitts and take the food out of the oven, I hear Max's musical laugh behind me "What?" I ask closing the oven.

"You look like a housewife with those on" Max giggles, looking at the hot pink oven mitts on my hands.

"I'm sorry Max, did you want food?" I ask raising an eyebrow. Max's expression grows dead serious "Don't joke around like that Fang, food is a serious topic".

I smirk and turn around to take the bacon off of the pan, thinking about how cute she looks when she gets mad.

Once I've turned off the oven and the stove, I pile food onto a plate for Max, and then more onto another plate for myself and sit down across the kitchen table from Max.

Max finishes her food before me and stand's up to get more "Oink oink" I say jokingly, "Joke all you want, but when the zombie apocalypse comes and I'm eating all the food you won't be so happy" she smiles.

"That'll never happen" I say.

"Whatever you say Fangles, all I mean is, you better learn to eat faster because when the world goes to shit there won't be enough food to go around, you'll have to act fast"

The fact that she says this in all seriousness makes it even funnier.

She turns around and glares at me, the usual fire returning to her eyes now that she's awake.

"It's gonna happen Fang, wait and see" she says as if she's giving me a warning.

I smile at her ridiculousness, she really is something.

* * *

**A/N sorry guys, this is kind of a filler, I didn't really have many ideas for this chapter so it's kind of lame. But I do have an idea of what's going to happen later **

**in the story so I'm trying to build up to that, anyways, hope you guys enjoyed! 3**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N I HAVE AN ACTUAL VALID REASON FOR NOT UPDATING! ****SO basically, I tried to close my garage door, and it doesn't have a handle on the outside so i just grabbed it and pulled it down, not realizing that the panels flatten out when it closes, so my fingers got crushed in between the panels of the garage door and I spent 6 hours in the ER. I didn't break/fracture my fingers, however, they have been incredibly sore for the past couple weeks and I couldn't type. Yes, I could have typed the next chapter with one hand but that would've taken too long, plus the hand I hurt was my dominant one. Fortunately my fingers are all better now and are no longer purple, YAAAY! Also sorry if I keep doing time skips in between chapters, I just don't find it necessary to write out their school days because then it would just be a bunch of filler chapters.**

* * *

**Max's POV**

It's wednesday and I'm halfway through the second week of school. Kill me.

In all seriousness though it really hasn't been too bad, especially my music class with Fang and the end of the day.

Right now our music teacher (Mr. Walters) has everyone in class working in pairs, obviously Fang and I have paired up. Were currently practicing in the music room, since it's lunch it's empty so it's the best time to practice without interruption.

We have to find a song and present it in the form of a duet (duh), the trouble is, we have to present tomorrow and Fang and I are still deciding between two songs, Use Somebody by Kings of Leon and Blackbird by the Beatles.

Both are equally amazing songs, we just can't pick.

"Why don't we just flip a coin?" Fang suggests.

"Why didn't you think of that last week" I glare at Fang as I grab a coin out of my wallet, he shrugs and smirks.

"Heads for Use somebody, tails for Blackbird" Fang says as I flip the coin and catch it in my hand, "Use Somebody it is" I grin and sit down next to him.

"Alright, we both know our part, right?" Fang raises his eyebrows and looks at me pointedly.

I hit his arm, "Yes I know my part you asswagon".

"Asswagon?" he holds back laughter and raises his eyebrows.

"Yes, Asswagon, that's what you are" I say crossing my arms.

Fang holds up his arms in surrender "okay okay don't kill me".

Fang starts strumming the guitar and humming.

**(A/N Yes the whole Max/Fang duet crap is overdone but I think it's cute af so I'm putting it in)**

**Bold=Fang**

_Italics=Both_

**I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all ****I see **

**Painted faces fill the places I can't reach**

_You know that I could use somebody_

_ You know that I could use somebody_

We continue harmonizing and working out the quirks until we have 5 minutes to get to class.

* * *

"Are we hanging out on Friday?" I ask, knowing full well that we are because it's what we do every weekend.

"Actually..." Fang trails off, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Omg Fang" I say covering my mouth in fake shock.

"You're finally getting the surgery done aren't you? Oh I always knew you were a girl! I love you an accept you know matter what!" I say wrapping my arms around him while pretending to cry.

"Ha ha very funny Max" Fang says, picking up his bag as I let go of him.

"So what's up then?" I ask walking out of the classroom with him towards our english class.

"I um... I..." Fang stutters.

"HE HAS A DATE WITH LISSA!" I hear Nudge squeal as she walks up beside us.

"How do you know that?" Fang asks, "Oh come ON Fang, did you really think you could ask out one of the most popular girls in the school without me finding out?" Nudge rolls her eyes.

"Aw Fangypoo has a date" I tease him.

"Omg Fang where are you taking her? What are you wearing? Are you gonna kiss her? Or have you already kissed her? OMG I bet you have you dog!" Nudge rambles on until she has to leave to get to her own class.

I try to talk to Fang more about Lissa but he just avoids the subject, weird.

He's probably just being and moody because Nudge and I teased him about his date.

* * *

**Fang's POV**

I'm not really sure how I ended up on a date with Lissa, it all kind of happened really fast, I'm not even sure who asked who out.

How can I be thinking about Max right now? I'm on a date with one of the most beautiful, popular girls in the school.

She does have really nice auburn hair.

"I really liked that restaurant" Lissa says casually as we walk down the street, it's just starting to get dark.

I smile, "Yeah, my mom told me to go there", Lissa laughed "Oh crap, that sounded really lame..." I trail off.

"No, it's cute" Lissa says, taking my hand as we continue to walk down the street.

We walk onto a small bridge and lean our elbows on the railing, looking at the water below.

"You know, a lot of people have been saying I'm crazy for liking junior " Lissa says turning to look at me, the moonlight shining off of her emerald green eyes.

"You like me?" I question.

"Of course silly!" Lissa giggles, "I wouldn't be here with you if I didn't"

"Well, that makes me feel better" I sigh, giving her a small smile.

We stand there, looking at each other for a couple seconds before we start leaning in, I notice Lissa's eyes flutter shut and I do the same.

Then I feel her lips crash against mine and her arms wrap around my neck.

It was a sweet kiss, nothing serious.

We break apart and Lissa smiles at me, I was crazy to ever have been thinking about Max when I was with such a beautiful girl, who actually wanted to be with me.

"I take it that you like me too then?" Lissa asks, "Why wouldn't I?" I ask, taking her hand back into mine as we leave the bridge and continue walking along the street to Lissa's house.

"Well, to be honest I always thought that you and that girl, what's her name? Mary or something?" Lissa asks.

"Max?" I say, "Yeah her, I always thought that you and her had a thing" Lissa says.

"Max is just my friend" I say reassuringly, she didn't need to know that I had feelings for Max.

* * *

**Max's POV**

"Hey" I say smirking as I watch Fang walk up his driveway, "Were you waiting up on me?" Fang asks with a tone of amusement.

"Yes" I say, still smirking, "Nudge told me too" I shrug.

"Since when do you take orders from Nudge?" Fang asks walking over to me.

"Since I'm also pretty curious as to how your date went" I say, "Did Fangypoo give Lissa a little smooch" I say puckering my lips and making kissy noises.

"I don't kiss and tell" Fang says, flipping his long, dark bangs out of his eyes, "You need a haircut" I state.

"Yeah, thanks for telling me mom, I forgot that I'm not capable of realizing when my hairs getting too long" he rolls his eyes.

"So really, how'd it go?" I ask sitting down on my porch swing, Fang sit's down next to me.

"Good" Fang replies with a shrug.

"Oh come on"

"What?"

"Good? That's all I get? I'm your best friend and all I get is 'good'?" I say as I raise my eyebrows.

"What do you want me to say?" Fang asks me, it's dark out and I notice that the evenings are getting cooler as I shiver.

"Are you cold?" Fang asks, starting to shrug off his jacket, it's his old worn leather one that I bought him for his birthday a couple years ago.

"I'm fine" I say, rubbing my arms for warmth, things suddenly got very quiet, and not the comfortable kind of quiet that I'm used to, it was awkward.

Fang sighs and runs a hand through his hair, the evening breeze blowing small strands of hair into his eyes, "Don't lie to me" Fang says as he places his jacket around my shoulders.

Fang gets up and starts walking down the porch stairs "Goodnight Max" he gives me a small smile before walking across to his front door and going inside.

I sit on the porch for a couple more minutes, wrapping his jacket tighter around my arms.

I take in one last breath of the nice fall air and walk inside.

I need a bath, a nice long bath. I don't know why but for some reason I feel like something's wrong, I just can't pinpoint exactly what that is.

I walk upstairs into my room and place Fang's jacket on my desk chair, then I open my vanity drawer and pick out a lavender bath bomb.

Once I have the tub filled up with hot water I throw in the bath bomb and climb into the water, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

I put in my headphones and place my phone on the side of the tub, making sure it doesn't fall in, after I dropped my last phone in the bathtub my mom said that if it happens again I'll be the one replacing it, whoops.

After what seems like hours the water cools down and I climb out of the bathtub and wrap a towel around myself, the clock on my phone reads 11:30 PM.

I walk down the hallway, my feet making small padding sounds on the floor and open my door.

I put on an old pair of grey roots sweatpants and a black tank top and throw myself down on my bed, I'm just about to open my laptop when my phone dings.

It's Dylan, yet again attempting to flirt with me, that boy just can't take a hint. I guess he hasn't realized that throwing a girl into a pool fully clothed isn't the way to her heart.

I ignore him and turn off my ringer in case he keeps trying, which he usually does.

After a couple hours of surfing the internet I get too tired to keep my eyes open and turn off my lights.

I crawl under my covers and close my eyes, too tired to even think.

* * *

It's Monday morning. Joy. But not really. Because Mondays suck ass.

I'm wearing a pair of baggy light blue ripped boyfriend jeans and a maroon t-shirt along with my matching doc's.

My army green bag is slung across my shoulder and I'm groggily walking beside Fang as we make our way to school.

"Geeze someone's tired" Fang says and nudges my shoulder, "What?" I say rubbing my eyes and yawning.

"I've been trying to talk to you for the past 5 minutes" Fang says.

"You have?"

Fang laughs "Geeze, I haven't seen you this tired since exams last semester"

"Yeah, I guess I just didn't get much sleep this weekend" I shrug and yawn, again.

"Why?"

"I have no idea" and that was the truth, I hadn't been able to sleep all freaking weekend and I had no idea why, but it's really goddam annoying because now I have to get up early all week for school.

"Weird. Anyways, we get our grade back today for our duet assignments in music" Fang says, attempting to make conversation to wake me up.

"Yeah, but come on, let's be honest, we killed it" I smile at the memory of Fang and I together in music class last week.

Fang rolls his eyes, "Maxie, Maxie, Maxie always so arrogant"

"I'm not arrogant, I just know that we kicked ass, just like I'm going to kick yours if you keep calling me Maxie" I threaten as we make it to school.

Before Fang has a chance to reply, Lissa walks up next to him "Hey Fang" she says, she leans in a kisses him on the cheek, "Hey Max" Lissa smiles and grabs Fang's hand.

"Hey Lissa" I smile, they make a cute couple.

"Morning Lissa" Fang smiles at her and squeezes her hand.

I suddenly realize that I'm kind of third wheeling and make up an excuse to leave "I have to go to my locker before the bell rings, I'll see you in class Fang, later Lissa" I nod and quickly walk toward the front doors of the school.

I look back and see Lissa leaning her head on Fang's shoulder, I watch as Fang grins and laughs at something Lissa says.

I get the strangest feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I ignore it and make my way to my locker, even though I don't really need anything from it.

After reaching my locker I lean my head against it and close my eyes, sighing.

"ZOMG MAX! Did you see Fang and Lissa yet this morning? Well of course you saw Fang you walk to school together but like, did you see him and Lissa _together? _They make such a cute couple! Although I have to be honest I always shipped you and Fang together because I mean you two obvs have chemistry but him and Lissa are cute too like they look so sweet together and not only that but Lissa isn't even a total s to the l to the u to the t like most of the other senior girls and I mean aren't they just the most sweet-" I cut Nudge off "Morning Nudge", I say as I slap a hand over her mouth.

"Oh, sorry, was I rambling again?" Nudge asks as she blushes, "Yes, but you wouldn't be Nudge if you didn't" I say smiling.

After saying goodbye to Nudge I finally make my way to first period and sit down as the teacher begins rambling on about stuff I don't really care about.

Man, it's gonna be a long week.

* * *

**A/N Sorry this one's so short guys, I promise I'll be back to updating regularly now that my fingers are better! I'm just a little rusty since I haven't updated in a while. Hope you enjoyed! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N I knooowwww it's been like 8 years since I last updated and I ****apologize. I really have no legitimate excuse. Basically, I just started at a knew school with a bunch of people I don't know and all my friends live an hour away and it's just been incredibly overwhelming and hard for me. I've been focusing on getting my schoolwork done and I'm usually up late studying so I haven't had time to update (until now because I got my homework done early and it's a weekend, yaayy!) and then I missed school because I had dental surgery (my mouth still hurts) and I had to catch up and it's just been one great big mess. I'm so sorry for not updating, but it's likely that I won't be able to update very often until I'm on Thanksgiving break (I will update before then, just not very often). I'm so sorry if this chapter is boring/moves very quickly. I have ideas for what's going to happen later in the story, I'm just having trouble figuring out what to write to lead up to them so that it doesn't seem to happen too fast. Anyways, now that I'm done talking about all my drama, enjoy this chapter! :)**

* * *

**Max POV**

It's the second week of October, and Fang and Lissa have been dating for three weeks. Just giving everyone out there an update in case you were interested.

It's Friday night and I'm getting ready to meet Nudge and Fang (and probably Lissa) at friday night lights, which is basically just our schools fancy word for a football game.

**(A/N I know absolutely NOTHING about football so I have no idea if the football season continues on into October but for the sake of this chapter let's just say that it does) **

My hair is still slightly damp from my shower but I don't have the patience to try and dry it. I throw on a white V-neck with a maroon coloured zip up hoodie and my blue jeans with tears in the knees, I then grab my favourite pair of white converse from my closet as Ella walks through my bedroom door.

"Is that really what you're wearing Max?" she asks as she crosses her arms.

I look down at my outfit "what's wrong with this?" I ask.

"Oh Max..." Ella trails off shaking her head, I still don't see what's wrong with my outfit, it's just a football game, not a beauty pageant.

"We have to leave in five minutes so hurry up and get downstairs" Ella says sounding agitated, who peed in her cornflakes this morning?

I roll my eyes as she exists the room, closing the door behind her. I apply a thin layer of eyeliner and mascara and head downstairs.

"Were leaving Mom!" I yell as I grab the car keys and walk out the door, "Okay sweetie! You guys have fun!" I hear my mom reply.

It's a home game, and our school is within walking distance but since it'll be dark by the time it's over were taking my mom's car.

As I start up the car and pull out of the drive way, I notice that Ella's already turned on the radio and started blasting pop music, even though it's a five minute

drive and she won't be able to listen to more then two songs at the most.

* * *

When we arrive at school it takes me ages to find a parking spot because were a little late, which is _not_ my fault by the way, no matter what Ella says.

After I've parked we get out of the car and head towards the bleachers by the football field and immediatley start looking for our friends in the crowd, I spot Nudge with Fang and of course, Lissa, near the top of the bleachers.

Iggy's somewhere on the football field warming up, I can never tell him apart from the other guys when their dressed in those uniforms.

As Ella and I make our way up the stairs of the bleachers I look around and notice that everyone is dressed in school colours, some guys even painted their faces... talk about taking it a little too far.

We reach the top of the bleachers and greet everyone, and of course, Lissa ends up sitting in between Fang and I, not that I mind of course...because that wouldn't make any sense.

Seeing as it's October, the evenings have grown colder and I look over and notice that Lissa has Fang's jacket wrapped around her and she's leaning her head on his shoulder, they're cute, they really are.

"So Max, got your eye on anyone?" Lissa asks me as the game starts, "Very funny" I say laughing, I've never been the 'boyfriend' type of girl, well at least not since...well you know.

"I'm serious!" Lissa laughs in reply, I notice Fang smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"So am I", I reply.

"What about Dylan? I think I heard Fang mention something about him once"

"Yeah, I mentioned that she hates him" Fang chuckled, wrapping his arm around Lissa's shoulder.

I roll my eyes and look at Fang "Did you forget to tell her that he threw me into a swimming pool fully clothed?"

"Maybe..." Fang trailed off.

"You know, when I was little my mom always told me that if a boy makes fun of you it means that he likes you", Lissa adds in.

"Yeah well, I think that throwing the girl you like into a pool it taking it a little too far" I say as something, obviously something important judging by the cheering in the crowd, happens down on the field.

I look over to see Ella has her eyes glued to the field. It's obvious that she's watching Iggy, it's also been fairly obvious that Iggy likes her back. I just wish one of them would ask the other out already and spare the rest of us the sight of them constantly ogling at one another.

I guess Iggy and I will have to have a little chat after the game is over, if he keeps Ella waiting she's going to think he doesn't like her and then I'll be the one stuck living with a bawling Ella for a month.

Eventually the game ends and we all go out to the parking lot to meet Iggy, soon he comes walking out of the school carrying his bag over his shoulder. His hair is glistening with sweat and I see his eyes light up a he looks at Ella.

"Hey Ells" he says, ignoring the rest of us.

"Um, were here too Iggy, you could appreciate the fact that your friends, who have zero interest in football came to watch you play", Nudge says as she crosses her arms.

"Yeah yeah, I saw you guys talking through the whoolleee game so don't even pretend like any of you were watching, except for Ella of course" Iggy says grinning.

I laugh and roll my eyes, could they be _any _more obvious?

"What happened to Fang and Lissa? I thought I saw them up in the bleachers with you guys earlier?" Iggy asks as he runs a hand through his hair.

"I'm not sure, I'll go look for them" I leave Nudge, Iggy and Ella to talk while I go look for the happy couple. I need to talk to Fang about halloween plans anyways.

There's this big halloween festival that goes on during every weekend in October at a local amusement park and Fang and the rest of us always go. We've been going since we were kids.

During they day they have halloween activities for families and young kids, and from 6PM to midnight they only let people past the age of 13 into the park to walk through all the different haunted houses.

It's called 'The Haunt', I remember the first time I went I was scared to death, especially in the circus themed haunted house. What can I say? Clowns scare me.

Fang and I always handled getting the tickets and finding a weekend when everyone was available to go because if we didn't then we'd never end up going in the first place.

The rest of the group are awful at making plans, besides Nudge because she loves to go out and socialize and stare at all the 'cute boys'.

I turn the corner around the back of the school, I'd just checked the bleachers to see if we'd lost them back there but didn't find them.

The field and the bleachers had been empty, but a little ways farther down the wall of the school I see Fang and Lissa.

Fang has Lissa pinned against the wall of the school and I can see his breath in the cold, autumn air. They stand there and stare into each others eyes for a couple seconds before I see Fang slowly lean in and press his lips to hers.

At first it's soft, gentle, and then I see Lissa wrap her arms around Fang's neck as they start to make out.

I realize that this is kind of a private moment and slowly walk away, back towards the bleachers, making sure the my footsteps are soft on the ground so that they don't hear me.

Once I've established a safe distance I look up and see one person is now sitting in the bleachers, I recognize him as Dylan.

It's strange, usually he would've already found a girl to go make out with and left by now, which is his usual routine.

I make my way towards him and climb up the stairs until I reach the row of benches that he's sitting on.

He notices my prescence and looks up from his feet. As I get closer to him I notice that there are faint marks of tear streaks running down his face.

I sit down next to him and we sit in silence.

After several minutes I speak up "So why is Dylan, super jock and womanizer, sitting in the stands by himself after winning a big game?" I ask, turning my head towards him.

"I really don't need this right now Max" Dylan says gruffly as he grabs his bag from next to him and stands up, readying himself to walk away.

I stand up and stop him from walking away, "Sit down Dylan" I say.

"Why should I?"

"Because I told you to, and if you want to get past me you'll have to hit me in the face or something. And despite the fact that I think you're a total asshat I know that you wouldn't actually hit me" I state, giving him a pointed look.

Dylan sighs and sits back down, letting his bag drop at his feet.

He sit's there in silence, I look at him and see something in his eye's that I used to see in Sam's all the time. He throw's his head down into his hand's and begins to sob.

"Listen, I don't know what's wrong with you, or why you're crying. You don't have to tell me what's wrong, you don't even have to say anything in reply to this, but whatever's going on I can tell that it's not just a one time thing. I've seen that look in some else's eyes before and I just wasn't smart enough to recognize it. Were not friends, we've never been friends but if there's something going on and you're hurting then you can tell me. There's something going on here that's making you hurt and believe it or not I care enough to tell you that you can talk to me, because I don't want to see you end up like... anyways, whoever or whatever made you this upset, just know that I'm here" I say.

After several seconds of silence I get up and start walking down the stairs of the stands to go find Ella.

"Max?" I hear from behind me.

I turn around and see that Dylan has lifted his head out of his hands "Thanks", he croaks and gives me a weak smile.

I nod my head and head back to the parking lot, knowing that Ella will be upset with me for taking so long.

As I reach my car I see a note stuck in between my wind shield wipers.

_Max, got tired of waiting for you._

_Hopefully you weren't murdered or anything because then I'd feel bad for writing this note._

_Anyways, Iggy is giving me a ride home. Hope you're not dead._

_XOXO - Ella_

I laugh and put the note in my pocket, Ella can be a pain in the ass but I love the crap out of her.

* * *

Once I get home I hang my car key's up on one of the small hooks beside the door and make my way upstairs.

I'm exhausted and worried about Dylan.

Geeze, I never thought I'd actually be worried about Dylan, in fact I never thought that I'd even think about anything but punching him in the face.

After I've slipped on one of Fang's old t-shirts that he left at my house ages ago, and a pair of grey pajama shorts I slip under my covers and stare at the ceiling.

I hear a soft knock at my door, "Come in" I say as I sit up in my bed and look at the glowing face of Ella.

"Hey Max" Ella says, she's grinning like the Cheshire cat.

I sigh, despite the fact that I have a million things on my mind and I'm incredibly tired I tell Ella to sit down and spill.

"Thank you so sooo much for taking forever to get back and drive me home after the football game you're absolutely amazing!" Ella beams and hugs me.

"Ohhhh did something happy with a certain tall, strawberry blonde football player this evening?" I tease her.

"Yes!" Ella shrikes so loud that I think my window is going to shatter.

"So the parking lot was practically empty and I was standing by the car waiting for you so Iggy offered to drive me home and on the way there he told me that he really likes me and that he's been really nervous about asking me out and so I was like 'so are you asking me out?' and he was like 'is that a yes?' and obviously I said yes"

"You sound like Nudge" I say laughing, "But I'm really happy for you Ells, I think everyone's been waiting for you two to confess your undying love for each other" I sigh dramtically as I put a hand over my forehead, pretending to faint.

Ella smacks me with one of my pillows and rolls her eyes.

"What about you Max?"

"What about me?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"You and Fang? Have you guys confessed _your_ undying love for each other yet?"

"Fang's dating Lissa, and even if he wasn't, we don't feel that way about each other" I say, laying back down in my bed.

Ella gets up and walks towards my bedroom door, "He may like Lissa, and she's really great but he loves you, anyone could see that. You just have to give him time to tell you" she says as she exits my room, closing the door behind her.

After I'm sure Ella's not coming back into my room to talk to me again I reach under my bed and grab hold of a small wooden box.

I carefully set it on my lap and open the lid, looking over it's contents.

It contains several polaroid photos of Sam and I, a bracelet that he gave me when we first started dating, an old mix CD of his favourite songs to listen to when it was raining and a bunch of handwritten notes he'd passed to me during class to keep me from falling asleep.

I can feel tears welling up in my eyes as I begin to read one of my favourite notes from Sam.

It was written on a scrunched up piece of lined paper that he had clearly ripped out of his binder at the time.

_Dear Max, I know you hate math class, you really do._

_And I know that it's boring and that you don't care what the square route of 82 or 78 is._

_But if you fall asleep, you'll get detention, and I'd hate that because I was really looking forward to hanging out with you after school today, and that won't _

_happen if you're stuck here :(_

_So, in the interest of putting a smile on your face in this room of misery, I'd just like to say..._

_I love you, I love you more than I love my favourite record or my old ratty jean jacket that I know you hate._

_I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone ever, and that's a lot._

_You're the best thing in my life._

_You're the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about before I fall asleep._

_I could sit and stare at your face all day, and if I got a dollar for every time I found myself thinking about you I'd be the richest 15 year old on the planet._

_The point of all this is, that math class ends in 10 minutes, and then I can kiss you._

_So please don't fall asleep, again. _

_I love you,_

_Sam._

Several of my tear drops have landed on the paper by this point and I'm only crying harder.

I'm in the 11th grade and it's been two years since he's been gone, but it doesn't hurt any less.

I know I'm supposed to have gotten over it by now, but I can't and I don't think that I ever will, it's too hard and it hurts too much.

I glance over at my clock, it reads 1:17AM, knowing Fang he'll still be awake watching Netflix but I can't keep running to him every time I get upset over something that happened two years ago.

Plus, he has a girlfriend and she's the priority now.

I should've known when they started dating that she'd come first, but I was convinced that nothing would change.

I thought that Fang and I would keep hanging out on weekends and stay as close as we've been our whole lives, but that was naive of me.

I don't blame Fang or Lissa, their a couple and they should be spending more time together than they are with anyone else.

Fang is still my best friend, but I need to learn to deal with things on my own from now on.

I stay up, a million thoughts racing around in my brain, until I can't keep my eyes open anymore and I slowly drift off into a black abyss.

* * *

**A/N I tried to make this chapter longer to make up for my lack of updating recently :) Hope you guys liked it, please review! :* Also, I edited this at 1AM so if there are a few mistakes I apologize.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N I'm back again for the second time this week give me a gold medal. Not actually though because I have no use for a gold medal... In reply to someone (cant remember their username, sorry unknown stranger!) I sass people all the time about using the incorrect form of your/you're and their/they're etc. So thank you for pointing that out because I know it drives me crazy when people do that so I'll try my best to look at that kind of thing more often when I'm editing :) Also, I have and have always had trouble with pretences (ex. present tense, past tense) and I tend to jump around a lot in my writing and it's often hard for me to recognize when I've been using two different tenses so just bare with me, I try really hard to make sure everything is in the same tense when I'm editing but if I miss something I apologize. Other than that I appreciate all the amazing reviews and feedback I'm getting! Also, in my last chapter I believe I said that Sam died 2 years ago when it was actually only 1 year because he died in June of the 9th grade and now their in the 11th grade so yeah...hope that makes sense. Enjoy!****  
**

* * *

**Fang's POV**

Max has been acting strange and no, I don't mean the kind of normal strange mood she get's into once a month (for obvious reasons I'm not going to name).

I think that it might have something to do with Sam, it usually does which is why I'm currently walking over to Max's house prepared to make her talk to me even if she doesn't want to, which is likely to happen.

I walked up to Max's door and knocked twice before the door opened in front of me, "Uh hey Fang" Max said.

"Hey" I smiled, "Can I come in?" I asked.

"Yeah sure" Max started making her way up to her bedroom, knowing I'd follow behind her.

Once we reached her room Max threw herself onto her bed, "Sup?" she asked me while trying to organize her notes, she'd clearly been studying.

I looked down at her notes and realized that they were all for math "Why didn't you ask for my help?" I asked completely ignoring her previous question.

"I thought you'd be busy" she shrugged not making eye contact with me.

We always study together for math, I seem to been the only person that's actually able to help her understand.

"Busy with what?"

"Lissa" she replied simply, shrugging her shoulders.

"Lissa?"

"Yes Fang, Lissa, are you deaf?" Max asked me raising her eyebrows.

I cleared a spot on Max's bed and sat down next to her, sighing "Max, is there something going on that you're not telling me about?" I asked her trying to sound as gentle as possible before she put up her walls.

"Look Fang I know what you're getting at so no, there's nothing going on involving Sam" she replied without even looking at me.

She knew she was right in assuming that that's what I was about to ask her, but that didn't mean that I couldn't see something else going on.

"Max" I said, making sure the tone of my voice made her look at me.

"Fang" she replied, mocking me.

"This might not be about Sam but there's something else going on, I'm your best friend and I can read you like an open book so just tell me what's going on because I'm not leaving this room until you do"

Max slammed her textbook shut and looked up at me and smiled, "I guess you're going to be in here for a while then because there's nothing going on. Just do me favour and cover your eyes when I'm changing in here, since you plan on staying here" she smirked.

I'd had enough, I know Max better than I know myself and she uses snarky comments to cover up when something's going on but it was clear that she didn't plan on telling me today so I just sighed and got up to leave.

Just as I was stepping out of her doorway I turned around, "Max, you clearly have no intention of telling me anything right now but when you're ready you can come talk to me" and with that I walked out of her room.

Once I arrived back home I realized that I'd forgotten my phone when I'd gone to see Max. I had 2 new messages from Lissa.

I opened my phone and read them, one was asking if I wanted to hang out and the other was asking about The Haunt.

It's Friday and all of us (all of us being Max, Lissa, Iggy, Nudge and Ella) are going to Haunt tomorrow night, Lissa wanted to know what time I was picking her up.

I smiled and texted her back asking her where she wanted to meet and told her that I'd pick her up at 5:30 seeing as it started at 6:00.

* * *

I walked into Lissa's favourite café and saw her sitting in a booth by the window, one coffee in front of her and another across the table for me.

I stood there for a couple seconds and stared at her as she sipped her coffee and doodled in her notebook I often saw her drawing in, I'd asked multiple times but she'd never let me see it.

I took off my jacket, soaking in the warmth from the inside of the café and sat down across from her.

"Hey" she said smiling at me, "Hey" I replied smiling back at her.

I took a sip of my coffee "Whatchya drawing?" I asked leaning over the table to get a better look.

"Hey no peeking!" Lissa giggled as she closed her notebook and carefully put it back in her bag.

"Are you _ever _going to let me see anything you draw in there?" I asked, over exaggerating the importance.

"Maybe, maybe not, I guess you'll just have to wait and find out" Lissa shrugged and took another sip of her coffee.

I really liked her. For one she was gorgeous, but I'm not so shallow that I only like people for their looks. I like the way she knows my coffee order and makes sure it's always waiting for me before I even get there.

I like how she doesn't act shallow and jealous when I talk to other girls, because she knows that I don't have feelings for anyone else but her, well except for Max. I'm always going to have feelings for Max, there is a part of me that loves Max and there always will be but she made it clear how she felt about me, so I'm trying to move on.

Lissa's smart and isn't afraid to admit when she's wrong, and always takes the time to do things I'm interested in.

I remember when we first started dating I mentioned a book I was reading at the time that I really liked, and a week later she'd read the whole thing before I'd even finished it.

"Is there something bugging you? You seem kind of rattled" Lissa asked, concerned.

"It's nothing really, I'm just worried about Max" I said thinking back to our conversation earlier, it was apparent that she was hiding something.

"Why? Did something happen?" Lissa knew about Sam, the entire school did. It was big 'news' at the time I guess, mostly because he got along with everyone so it affected a lot of people.

"No, not really. She's just been acting strange and she won't talk to me" I said furrowing my eyebrows.

"You know I've seen you two around each other Fang, you told me that you two have been best friends since you were little kids. I think that you should just let her talk it out with you when she's ready" she said, reaching across the table and envelopping my hand with hers for comfort.

"I guess" I shrugged and then changed the topic, feeling like somehow I was betraying Max by discussing her weird behaviour with someone else other than her.

I don't know how long we sat there, drinking coffee after coffee and talking, but before I knew it, it was getting dark outside we had to leave.

As Lissa and I walked back to her car, I realized something. Standing here, holding the hand of a girl who isn't Max is something I never would have even thought about.

I was always so fixated on Max, it always seemed that everything lead to her but I think I'm happy with Lissa and I think that I'm starting to really accept the fact that Max and I are never going to be an item and strangely enough I'm okay with that.

As Lissa pulled her car door open I leaned against it and closed it, she turned around at looked at me, noticing that I had her pinned against her car.

"Yes?" she asked me raising one of her eyebrows as a smirk played it's way onto her face.

"Nothing" I mumbled as I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her. Lissa kissed me back with same passion and fire and soon had her hands tangled in my hair.

Eventually we ran out of air and had to separate, "What was that for?" she asked me, laughing.

"Nothing" I said again and then walked away towards my car.

* * *

**Max's POV**

I breathed a sigh of relief as Fang walked out of my room. Damn him and his ability to know when something's going on.

Usually, Fang would have gotten it out of me, yanno, whatever's bugging me? But I can't tell him about what's happening right now.

The only time I won't tell Fang when something wrong is when something's _really _wrong, and I hate knowing that I'm making him worry.

How am I supposed to tell him that Dylan's in love with his girlfriend? And that I'm completely, hopelessly in love with him? Yes, I admit it. I Maximum Ride am in love with Fang Walker.

**(A/N idk if I've mentioned Fang's last name before and if it was Walker but that's what it is now ****sooo)**

Let me take you back to what happened a couple days after the football game, the night I found Dylan crying on the bleachers.

_Flashback_

_I was sitting in my room re-reading one of my favourite books when I heard my phone ding. I rolled my eyes as I saw that the text was from Dylan, assuming that it would be something sexist and disgusting as per-usual. _

_When I unlocked my phone and read the text I was actually surprised._

**_Can you meet me in 10 minutes at the park by our school? You know which one right?_**

_I actually did know which park he was talking about, that sounds super sketchy but it's not. It' just a really old children's playground that no one goes to because they've since built newer and probably safer ones._

_However it is a good place to talk if you don't want to be __interrupted, I know because Fang and I usually went there to talk whenever one of us was upset._

_After making sure Dylan didn't have any perverted intentions I agreed to meet him and got up off of my window seat and got dressed._

_It was 6:00 on a Wednesday evening in the middle of October so I threw on a pair of black leggings and a big over sized Beatles t-shirt along with a light jean jacket and a pair of black doc's._

_I grabbed my phone and texted Ella, telling her not to worry if she got home from Nudge's house and I wasn't there._

_After grabbing my black beanie from the hall closet and throwing it on my head I locked the door behind me and started making my way to the park._

_Before I could get too far down the sidewalk I heard someone call my name from behind me, it was Fang._

_"Where are you going Max? It's getting dark out" Fang said, insinuating that there can't possibly be anything I need to get to that badly._

_"What are you? My mother?" I asked jokingly and punching his shoulder._

_"Maximum Ride! How dare you go out at this hour you could be raped or kidnapped! Or both!" Fang mimicked my mom, not very well._

_I laughed and rolled my eyes, Fang has such a deep voice that hearing him impersonate a woman was funnier that it would be for a guy who's voice wasn't abnormally deep._

_"Seriously though Max, you don't even like leaving your room in the daytime" Fang said smirking and making fun of my anti-social tendencies._

_"Don't worry about it Fang" _

_"But Ma-" I cut him off, not wanting to explain knowing that he'd insist on coming with me if he knew I was meeting Dylan._

_"Fang, you're my best friend and I love you but please, just let me walk away and don't question it, alright?" I asked him while giving him my best puppy dog eyes._

_Fang sighed "Fine, __just don't get murdered or anything" Fang winked and then walked into his house._

_When I finally reached the park I saw Dylan sitting on one of the swings, slowly rocking back and forth and kicking the sand with his old, worn out black Vans._

_He was wearing a dark blue hoodie and light coloured jeans, his hair, usually perfect was drooping over one of his eyes._

_I walked towards him and sat down on the swing next to him, "Why'd you ask me here?" I asked him as he turned his head to look at me._

_"You said if I ever needed to talk, that I could talk to you right?", his voice was hoarse as if he'd been crying again._

_"Of course" I said, suddenly realizing that this Dylan was completely different than that one I knew who threw me into a swimming pool at the end of the summer._

_"Listen, I know I've always been an ass to you and I'm sorry. I can't talk to any of the guys on the team because they'd just make fun of me and I don't have any real friends and I just..." Dylan trailed off, not really knowing how to continue._

_"Hey" I said "You can talk to me okay? I said it's fine" I nodded reassuringly._

_Dylan took in a huge breath and then began talking "I-I don't know how to start it's just... Max I'm in love, I'm completely in love with Lissa and she's dating your best friend. God I've been in love with her since I first saw her and I tried to hard to get her attention and it feels like I've been shot in the chest and every day I see her with Fang and it's getting worse and worse and I just don't know how to stop it from hurting"_

_I was actually kind of shocked to hear all of that come out of him. "I know how you feel" I laughed bitterly, "Sorry I don't know what I mean by that" I said and then cleared my throat._

_"I do. Max be honest, you're head over heels for Fang and I think everyone but Fang knows it." _

_"Is it that obvious?" I asked, coming to terms with the fact that no matter how many times I told myself that I couldn't be in love with Fang because it would ruin things, I would still love him._

_Dylan laughed "Yes"._

_"Great" I grumbled, "I guess this means we actually kind of have something in common for once" I said chuckling._

_It's funny how a few years ago if you told me that I had something in common with Dylan I would've told you you're crazy._

_After sitting at the park, venting and swinging for almost an hour, it was 7:15PM and I said I had to get going before my mom worried._

_Dylan offered to walk me home since he was the one who'd kept me out so late and I accepted since I hate walking in the dark by myself anyways._

_"Hey Max, can I ask you something?" Dylan asked me as we approached my house, "Sure" I __shrugged, knowing he obviously wasn't going to ask me out since he was in love with Lissa._

_"I know it seems like I'm some big popular jock and I guess in a way I am, not to sound self centred of course but I don't really have any actual friends that are girls, and I guess I'd like to hang out sometime, if you're cool with that" he said scratching the back of his head._

_I smiled as we made our way up my front porch steps, "that'd be great" I said, and just as I put my hand on my front __doorknob I felt two arms circle around me._

_I hugged him back, "Thanks" he whispered, "You're welcome" I whispered back smiling._

_I waved as Dylan retreated down my front steps and walked inside my house. It felt nice to have someone I could confide in about Fang other than Fang himself._

_End of flashback._

And that ladies and gents, is why I've been acting so weird around Fang lately. I've been trying not to but it's been hard, pretending I'm not hopelessly in love with him and that I'm not only friends with guy he hates, but that said guy is also in love with his girlfriend.

Im so screwed.

**Fang's POV**

Why is Max standing on her front porch hugging Dylan?

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**A/N I hope you guys liked it! I have a very short attention span so it took me like 5 hours to type + edit all of this. Hopefully I'll been updating again soon! I have so many ideas for this story and I know everyone (or most people at least) despise the whole FangXLissa and MaxXDylan pairings, including me but it's kind of necessary for this story to play out :P Also, I'm not perfect and neither are my editing skills so please be kind, seeing as I wrote all this while simultaneously studying for science and drinking 5 cups of coffee :) Anyways, please review I'd really appreciate it! Thanks guys!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N So I've realized that how frequent I update depends on how much school work I have and I do have some huge projects due this week and like a million tests to take and study for, so I won't be able to update much after today but I'll try my best! Also, I really shouldn't be updating right now because I have a million things I should be working on for school but I felt that I should update even if the chapter ended up being a little short, so I apologize it it's not the usual length. Please review, love you guys :***

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**Lissa's POV**

"I've been your best friend since we were in diapers! I saw you hugging Dylan earlier this week and sometimes I know what's better for you than you do and Dylan's a jerk! He's only interested in sleeping with you and then throwing you aside for some other girl" I can hear Fang's distinct voice from my current spot on the staircase.

"Who do you think you are? You can't tell me who I can and can't hang out with!" I can hear a girl's voice, presumably Max's, coming from Fang's room.

I'm right outside Fang's bedroom door now, but I don't feel like it would be a good idea to burst in on their argument at this particular moment.

Fang and I had a change of plans and decided that I'd meet him at his house as apposed to him picking me up for Haunt, but I assume that might not be happening now.

I know it's wrong to eavesdrop, but I can't help but listen. I've been jealous of Max since I first saw her and Fang together.

And I don't mean jealous as in I hate her and think she's a slut etc. I mean I'm jealous of her relationship with Fang.

I think Max is a really nice person and I can tell that she really cares about the people she's close to, it's just unfortunate that my boyfriends in love with her.

At first, I was in denial and I didn't believe it. I thought that the love I saw in Fang's eye's when he looked at Max was just me being paranoid, I thought I was trying to convince myself there was something wrong with him before I got hurt.

I should've just accepted it.

I love Fang and I haven't told him, mostly because I can tell he's in love with Max.

The way he looks at her gives it all away and I don't think he realizes just how in love with Max he is which is probably why we're still together.

Gradually, I've started to notice that maybe I'm just a distraction for Fang, a way for him to not have to think about Max.

And I know it's wrong to date him when I know he's in love with Max, but I love him and I'm just not ready to let him go yet, I'm not ready to stop trying.

I snapped out of my thoughts and heard that Fang and Max were still arguing.

"God dammit Max, I'm not trying to upset you okay? I'm just trying to protect you from getting hurt, what if you fall for him? All he's going to do if hurt you Max." I hear Fang's voice quiet as he say's this.

"Well maybe you should stop trying to protect me" Max whispered.

Max stormed out of Fang's room and noticed me standing there, "Oh, uh, Fang's in his room" Max said awkwardly as she wiped a tear away from her eye and went downstairs.

I slowly made my way into Fang's room and sat next to him on his bed where he had his head in his hand's.

"Fang?" I asked, he didn't make a sound and just continued sitting there, silent, with his head down.

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and eventually he lifted up his head and placed it on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry" Fang sighed.

"Sorry?" I asked, "You have nothing to be sorry about Fang".

Fang just closed his eyes and sat there, resting his head of my shoulder.

After sitting there for several minutes, Fang finally raised his head and looked at me.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

Fang gave me a small smile, "I'm fine, just worried but I'll be okay. Thanks" Fang kissed me on the cheek.

"Do you need me to stay here with you?" I asked him as I started to get out of my place next to him.

"No it's okay, I think I just need to be alone for a little while" Fang said as he got up to walk me to the front door.

"Oh, okay" I smiled weakly.

As I was about to walk out the front door Fang grabbed my arm and turned me around and kissed me.

After we ran out of air he rested his forehead on mine and smiled "Really Lissa, thank you"

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**Max's POV**

Jesus Christ, I can't believe Fang. Who does he think he is? Telling me I shouldn't be hanging out with Dylan. Fang doesn't even _know _Dylan for god's sake.

I don't see why he cares anyways. Fang know's I'm smart enough to look out for myself, plus I know exactly who Dylan has his eyes set on and it's definitely not me.

I just wish Fang would trust me, it hurts that lately, all we do is argue and fight.

It's Friday and I guess Fang noticed that Dylan had walked me home from school because the second Dylan walked off my front porch I got a text from Fang saying that he needed to talk to me.

What an asshat.

I know that in a couple hours when I've had time to cool down I'll probably regret mentally calling Fang an asshat and I'll end up bursting into tears because boo hoo poor me I'm in love with Fang.

But it' hard having someone try and protect you, when in reality they're the ones hurting you.

And I don't blame Fang, it's not his fault because he doesn't know what I know about Dylan and he doesn't know how I feel.

What is his fault, is the fact that he doesn't trust me.

I decided to text Dylan and ask if he wanted to come over, since my plans for the night had clearly been cancelled.

Dylan said he'd be over in an hour so I decided to try and get my music theory homework done so that I wouldn't have to worry about it later.

After finishing my homework within 10 minutes, what? Music theory is easy...

I ended up re-organizing my binder since it was kind of a huge mess.

It must have taken me longer than I thought because before I knew it Dylan was knocking at my front door.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I found that Ella had answered the door, and Fang was standing in the doorway.

"What do you want?" I ask, crossing my arms and glaring at him as best as I can.

"Max, please just let me talk to you" Fang sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

"I'll be upstairs if you need anything Max" Ella nods at me and makes her way up the stairs to her room.

Fang doesn't leave the doorway, "I know you're mad at me, but I just wish you would listen to me" he said.

"Fang, I did listen to you" I'm trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"If you had listened to me you would've reali-" I cut Fang off.

"How about _you _listen to _me_? Okay? Fang, I trust you and I understand what you're trying to do but you can't protect me from everything and I wish you'd trust my instincts for once okay? Dylan isn't a threat" I manage to get through my whole sentence without raising my voice.

"Max, I do trust you. It's _Dylan _that I don't trust. I know guys like him, and I know what he wants from you and all that is, is to sleep with you and then throw you away"

I have that feeling in the pit of my stomach again, it's anger boiling up inside me.

"That couldn't be farther from the truth" I hear a voice come from behind Fang.

Fang turns around and moves to the side and I can see Dylan standing on the porch.

"Why are you here?" Fang snarls at Dylan.

"I'm here because Max invited me over" Dylan said.

Fang turned around and gave me a look that you'd expect to see after you'd killed someone's entire family.

"Dude, you don't need to protect her from me okay? I'm not trying to pull any shit. We're just friends" Dylan said, walking past Fang into my house and taking a spot beside me.

"I absolutely need to be protecting her from you" Fang said, I can see his fists are clenched at his sides.

"Fang calm d-" Dylan cut me off, "Maybe I'm not the one she needs protecting from".

"What?" Fang said, taking a step closer to Dylan.

"I said, maybe I'm not the one she needs protecting from, get it? Maybe _I'm _not the one hurting her" I could tell that both of them were getting riled up now.

"Guys come one take a chill pi-" I was cut off yet again as Fang threw a punch and hit Dylan right in the eye.

"Fang!" I yelled and ran in between the two, knowing they wouldn't fight with me stuck in the middle.

Fang suddenly seemed to realize what he'd just done, "Max I-I'm sorry I don't know why I-" Fang lost his train of thought.

"Get out"

"Max I-"

"No Fang. Get. Out." I said.

Fang lowers his head and walks out of the door without saying anything else.

"Shit. I'm sorry" I said as I grabbed Dylan's hand and lead him to the kitchen so I could ice his eye.

Dylan just chuckled, "Why are you sorry? You're not the one who punched me in the face" he said as he took the ice pack from my hand and placed it over his eye.

"I know, but it is partially my fault" I said, sitting down next to him.

"Really Max, I shouldn't have provoked him, I knew what I said would piss him off, but I still don't regret saying it"

"Is it because of Lissa?" I ask him.

"Partially yes, I guess I was angry at him because of Lissa and because were friends now and he's hurting you" Dylan shrugged.

"I guess I didn't really care if I pissed him off because I felt that he deserved it" he continued.

"Strangely enough, I understand but it's not his fault Dylan, he doesn't know how either of us feel" I replied.

"I know, and as much as I wish it did, it doesn't stop me from being angry at him" Dylan said.

"It's okay" I said, I leaned my head on his shoulder, in a strange way I guess I understood his anger, because I feel the same way about Lissa and Fang.

And not because I hate either of them, but because I was mad at them for making me feel this way even though it's not their fault.

God, I never thought Dylan and I would have anything in common, but lately in seems like we have more in common with each other than anything else.

After sitting there for a while, Dylan and I sat down and I told him about the huge fight I'd had with Fang earlier.

It felt good to tell him, because oddly enough, I knew I could trust him.

I realized that I should probably go upstairs and ask Ella to call everyone and tell them that our plans were cancelled, unless they wanted to go without Fang and I, which was fine by me.

"Hey Ells" I said leaning my shoulder on her doorframe.

"Hey Max! What's up?" Ella said cheerfully.

"As you've probably already figured out, Fang and I aren't getting along too well at the moment so you guys can continue the plans without us if you want but would you mind calling everyone and telling them?" I ask her.

"Already done, were not going, it's not the same without you two there" Ella smiles at me.

I chuckle, "Thanks" I say and walk back downstairs.

After that I text Lissa and ask her to check up on Fang because as much as I want to do it myself, I know that it's something Lissa should be doing.

And if I go over there I'm basically saying that I'm okay with how he acted and I'm not.

I'm really not.

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**A/N Sorry guys! That was probably my shortest chapter _ever _but I figured a short update is better than no update right? Anyways, pleasepleaseplease review because it honestly makes my day and I love hearing your ****feedback/predictions of what will happen in later chapters. It's 10:00 on a school night and I need to head to bed so I'm sorry if it's been poorly edited. I'll try and update again this week but it's very unlikely so don't count on it, hopefully I'll be able to update next week! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Wowowowwow it's been like 8 years since I last updated and I'm so so so sooo sorry! I had crazy amounts of homework plus I had family thanksgiving things going on (I live in Canada, we have Thanksgiving in October) and then I got the flu and I missed a bunch of school and had MORE work to catch up on plus I have volunteering and tutoring and blah. I've just been busy. I can't promise that I'll update frequently, but I can promise that I won't go months without updating, because that'd be cruel, and lame, it'd be crame. PLUS I usually carve 10 pumpkins all by myself every Halloween because I take pumpkin carving very seriously and with Halloween only a week away (yaaaass) I probably won't update much because I'll be covered in pumpking guts. Sorry for not updating! But I'm back now! Hope you guys enjoy :) And yes I know it's poorly edited but I'm still have the flu (well sort of) and I'm sick and tired so let's pretend that's a good excuse :p****  
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**Max's POV**

It's November. And Fang and I haven't spoken since he punched Dylan in the face.

Hah. I never thought Fang and I would stop talking, especially over something he did to Dylan of all people.

Surprisingly, I've been spending a lot of time with Dylan and it's probably because Fang is always with Nudge, Ella and Iggy. I'm not saying that they're choosing Fang over me, or that I'm choosing Dylan over them. That's just how it's been the past couple weeks.

Fang and I have never really fought for more than a couple hours, and then we both cave in and apologize and everything's fine again. But something was different this time, I just couldn't tell what.

Fang and I always spent Halloween together, because it's my favourite holiday (Fang's is Christmas) and he was my best friend, so it made sense.

We'd hand out candy to little kids and then stay up all night watching scary movies, and if Halloween happened to be in the middle of the week that year, we'd skip school the next day.

But this year I spent Halloween with Dylan.

I know what some of you are going to say, 'you're replacing Fang with Dylan', or 'you're in love with Dylan', but the funny thing is, were still both in love with Fang and Lissa.

Me being the one in love with Fang and Dylan being the one in love with Lissa, of course.

I'm not trying to replace Fang, but he's always been the one I run to when I'm hurt and I can't talk to him about this. It's nice talking to someone who understands.

Dylan and I don't just spend all our time talking about how in love we are, we don't cry and throw ourselves a pity party every time we see each other.

Obviously the subject of Fang and Lissa comes up once and a while, but were actually friends and to be honest it's kind of nice.

Nudge and Ella have been bugging me since the whole thing happened, but I can't bring myself to tell them why I won't talk to Fang.

Every time I see him with Lissa it hurts... It was easier when I was in denial. At least that way I could convince myself I wasn't hurting.

The funny thing is, even if Fang wasn't with Lissa I don't think I'd be able to tell him how I feel. I'd be too afraid of screwing things up, too afraid of being rejected or losing him.

"Max? Max? Anybody home" Dylan asks from his spot across from me in the library.

Were sitting at one of the tables near the back of our school library, studying for some big science test coming up next week. The back of our school's library is meant for study groups, so were allowed to talk back here.

That musty smell books get when they haven't been read in a long time is in the air. I can see layers of dust on top of some of the shelves. People don't tend to check out books from our library, on account of the fact that most of them are falling apart and the information in them is 1000 years old.

I remember Fang telling me one time that he thought libraries and book stores were beautiful. He said there was something calming, something kind of fascinating about them.

_Flashback - Sophomore year_

_"Breathe it in Max" Fang said._

_"Breathe in what?", I scoff "The smell of books?"_

_Fang had taken me to some really old used book store in the older part of town._

_Fang, throughout all my time knowing him, had always loved books, art and music._

_I was always telling him he had a really old soul and this further proved my point._

_"Tsk, tsk, tsk Max, can't you see the beauty in this place?" Fang asked me, his eyes glinting from the sunlight shining through the skylight in the ceiling._

_"Um, what's the beauty in mouldy old books from the 17th century?" I asked him._

_"You don't get it Max, all these books, they all had to have been written by someone right?"_

_"Right..." I trailed off, still not seeing his point._

_"The people that wrote these books had ideas flowing through their heads, they had feelings, they all had lives and they all had something that influenced them to write a particular book. I think it's comforting, knowing that so many people could take things they'd gone through in their lives and turn them into beautiful stories"_

_Fang started wandering around the store, picking up books that seemed interesting._

_"All these people had lives Max, but they all left something behind. Even if that something was a simple as a book. Don't you find that interesting?" he asked me._

_"Um, sure?"_

_End of Flashback_

I kind of understood what Fang was saying now. It's a hard feeling to describe, but I get it. I wish I'd understood when he'd explained it to me.

"What? Oh yeah sorry, I zoned out" I said to Dylan.

He rolled his eyes and continued highlighting what seemed to be pretty much all of his notes in different colours.

His study notes basically looked like a gay pride parade, if that makes any sense.

"You better chill out with the highlighting before it runs out of highlighty magic" I laughed.

"Highlighty magic?"

"Yeah, yanno like when you have a pen but it stops working because it ran out of colour?" I tell him.

"Do you mean ink Max?" Dylan laughs at me.

"I like the word highlighty magic better..." I grumble and look back down at my page.

I didn't understand any of this. Science is stupid, who needs it anyways? How am I even passing this class...

I got lost in my thoughts and before I knew what was going on Dylan was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Whattt?" I groaned as I looked up from the page I'd been staring at in my ridiculously large science textbook.

"You've been staring at that page for at least 5 minutes" Dylan chuckled.

I just rolled my eyes and went back to my staring contest with my textbook.

Eventually the bell rang signalling the end of our lunch break and I gave up trying to understand the complex world of grade 11 science.

Dylan and I made plans to continue studying after school, since I was clearly in need of some serious help.

I made my way towards my english class, pushing my way through the sea of bodies all rushing to different rooms.

A group of girls stop walking directly in front of me and being having a conversation and giggling as if they aren't standing in the middle of the hallway. So I stand and glare at them hoping they'll get the hint, but of course they don't.

"AHEM" I say very loudly, which attracts their attention, they all turn and glare at me a if _I'm _the one being rude.

I roll my eyes and practically push my way straight through them. God, I can't stand people who walk slowly in the hallway.

After reaching my classroom I take my seat right next to Fang. We'd picked our seats at the beginning of the semester and weren't aloud to change them, so all we could do is ignore each other and hope we didn't get partnered up for anything.

Our teacher walked in and began ranting about some assignment that I didn't have the patience to care about.

I started drawing in the margins on one of the pages in my binder when I heard Fang's voice next to me.

"Alright let's get this over with" Fang sighed, looking down at a sheet the teacher has apparently just handed out.

"Excuse me?" I ask, I guess I should have been paying attention when the teacher was talking...

I notice that Fang's cut his hair since we last spoke, his fringe is shorter but it still hangs over his eyes so that he has to keep brushing it out of his sight.

I missed his smell, laundry detergent which is a pretty common smell but I associate it with him.

Fang starts to laugh but then remembers were not on good terms and suppresses it with a cough.

"We just got partnered up for this project, weren't you paying attention?" he asked me, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, what project" I asked, sheepishly.

"Were supposed to write an essay on one another" Fang said pointing out the assignment sheet on my desk.

"Oh, great" I said, exasperated.

Normally I'd be excited about this, I know Fang inside out, or at least I thought I did. But right now I'm not exactly jumping up and down with joy at the thought of having to spend time with him.

As much as I miss him, I'm not ready to be around him all the time.

I miss touching him, and not like in a creepy sexual way, just the regular things. Like hugging him and sitting next to him on my bedroom floor doing homework.

I miss him taking care of me whenever I burn myself trying to cook something. I miss the way he always asks me if I'm alright, not so often that it's annoying, but just enough so that I have the chance to get things off of my chest once in a while when I'm to stubborn to speak up.

I miss the little things he'd do, like when he heard a song on the radio he knew I'd like and he'd write it down for me so he wouldn't forget.

Just small gestures I guess. I'd never really thought much of them until now, when he wasn't around.

"Listen Max, I know you're pissed with me okay? But we need to work on this project and I really don't want to fight with you. I've felt sick not talking to you these past couple weeks..." Fang trailed off, taking a second to breathe.

"And I'm sorry okay? I was way out of line. I guess I just didn't want you getting hurt but I was too stupid to realize that no matter how hard I try I won't be able to protect you from everything. All I can do is be there to pick up the pieces, I still don't like Dylan but I'm not going to be a dick about you hanging out with him either. I'm sorry"

I just kind of sat there staring at Fang for a couple seconds, surprised that he chose the middle of english class to apologize.

"I guess I could've been a little less thick headed too..." I said, a smirk pulling at the side of my mouth.

Fang just rolled his eyes, "Are we good?" he asked me.

"I refuse to accept your apology until you buy me chocolate" I said turning my head away from him and crossing my arms.

"I can't buy you chocolate in the middle of class, but I'll bring you some after school, okay?"

"Well, I guess that's acceptable."

Fang flashed me a smile and began explaining our assignment in further detail since I'd neglected my duty as a student to pay any attention whatsoever.

Eventually the bell rang and we made our way to music class, I still wasn't ready to be around him all the time. But I'm sick of pretending he doesn't matter to me, because he matters more than he'll ever know.

We make our way to music, catching each other up on everything we've missed out on in each others lives in the past couple weeks, which isn't very much.

I'm grateful to whoever made my schedule, because ending the day with music class if probably one of the best things in the world.

Everyone takes their seats in front of the small stage in the centre of the classroom and of course, I drag Fang back up to the front row with me.

Another great thing about this class, there are no assigned seats because people are always moving around or seated with their specific instrument. It's even better for me because I usually get to use one of the small practice rooms, which are soundproof so that you can't throw off anyone's vibe outside the room.

I mostly hate small spaces, but the practice rooms are pretty cozy.

"Okay class settle down!" our teacher says as he walks up onto the stage and claps his hands together.

"After hearing all of you wonderfully talented musicians over these past couple months I've decided that you're all ready. Ready for what you ask? To write your own music!" our teacher looks at us like he just handed over a million dollars.

I can hear some people groaning and some people celebrating, I'm one of the people in the later group.

"It can be instrumental, or it can include lyrics. But your ultimate goal is to make everyone in the room feel something. And as long as that feeling isn't boredom, you'll succeed. You can partner up with one other person if you want and your song with be performed before christmas break, now get to work!"

Fang just turned to me and smiled, trying to hold in his laughter. I guess our teacher did get a little more excited than most teachers would've.

We decided to work separately, writing our own songs but to help each other when we got stuck. We went into one of the practice rooms and began working.

You'd think that writing a song is easy, and I guess in some ways it is. For example, if a song where the words 'my anaconda don't' repeated over and over again for five minutes can be popular, then 'song' writing can't be that hard, right?

The real trouble is writing something emotional, something raw and real that reaches people.

Fang is great at these sorts of things, and while I'm excited to work on this I'm also equally as frustrated because of my lack of creativity.

By the end of class Fang had written down a thousand different ideas and all I had was a scribble.

I just walked out of class groaning, "You'll get there Max, you always do" Fang said nudging my shoulder.

"I knowwww, it's just the whole 'getting there' part that frustrates me" I groaned, running a hand through my messy hair.

Fang offered to come over after school and help me, but I told him that I already had plans, and he didn't ask.

I was grateful that he'd finally stopped making a big fuss about Dylan.

Things weren't totally back to normal for us, but we'd get there soon.

* * *

**Fang's POV**

I watched Max as she scribbled things down on her page and then erased them, over and over from my spot next to her in the practice room.

Max had written songs before, and although I rarely heard her sing them I knew they were good.

She'd always had a hard time expressing her emotions, she'd been like that since we were little and although I liked to put up the emotionless rock facade around everyone, I never had a problem when I was around Max.

Personally I think Max had always just been too stubborn to admit her feelings.

I smiled as she glared at her paper and crossed off yet another idea, her eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

Once the bell that let us go home rang, Max groaned the whole way out of class.

"You'll get there Max, you always do" I said, giving her a nudge of encouragement with my shoulder.

"I knowwww, it's just the whole 'getting there' part that frustrates me" Max groaned as she ran a hand through her hair.

Max has always been kind of a honey blonde, but in the colder months some of the blonde would fade away because she wouldn't spend as much time in the sun, her hair was getting darker already.

I was glad that were back to talking. I missed her.

As much as I like spending time with Lissa, she's not the same as Max and I know I shouldn't be comparing my best friend to my girlfriend but I can't help it.

Max doesn't really have an outgoing personally exactly, but she's not afraid to speak her mind or be herself, it just kind of comes naturally to her.

Lissa's sweet, always polite to everyone but I can tell when she doesn't like someone, even if she's being completely nice. It's not as if Lissa is shy, but she's definitely more reserved then Max.

Max is really passionate about music and things she believes in and doesn't ever back down whereas Lissa will stick up for her beliefs but won't cause an argument over something.

And Max is just... I love everything about her.

But I'm dating Lissa and...

Shit.

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**A/N I was going to make this chapter longer but I ran out of enegery and I wanted to post before you guys starting thinking I'd died. Anyways, review! 3**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N This is probably going to be my last update until next weekend because of school etc. But thank you all sosososso much for all the great reviews! I wouldn't keep writing if it weren't for you guys :) Also, on account of the fact that I reallyy wanted to get this chapter up tonight, I only edited it with spellcheck instead of going over it myself, I'll re-edit it tomorrow so if there are any minor mistakes they'll be fixed don't worry! Anyways, enjoy! **

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**Fang's POV**

It'd been a week since I'd realized that I am completely in love with Max. I guess I already knew that before but I thought I'd gotten over it once I tarted dating Lissa.

So far I didn't think Lissa could tell that anything was up and I know it's wrong to keep dating her when I'm in love with Max but I don't know how to break it off.

What if Max doesn't feel the same way? What if Lissa hates me? If I break up with her everyone is going to ask me why and what am I supposed to say? "Oh yeah it turns out I'm in love with my best friend and I was just using Lissa as a distraction the whole time because Max didn't feel the same way" yeah, like that'd go over well.

No matter what I do I'm going to be portrayed as a douche bag. There's no reason I shouldn't love Lissa, she's great and most guys in this school would kill to be with her but for some reason I'm the one she chose.

And I don't even love her.

This would be so much easier if I were a sociopath.

But then again, being a sociopath would bring up other issues.

It was actually snowing this morning, and Max still refused to wear a winter coat.

"I can see you shivering Max" I said chuckling as I put my arm around her shoulders.

"Winter coats are so big and puffy, they make it hard to move..." Max whined.

I rolled my eyes, I don't know what Max was talking about, winter coats are exactly like regular coats.

We continued walking to school in silence, Max's mom made her take her coat with her and even though she was shivering all she did was hold her coat in her arms. I wish she'd just put it on.

I smiled as flakes of snow fell out of the sky and landed in Max's hair. She was beautiful.

The sun shone off of the snow and the light glinted in her eyes, that Max was always complaining were just plain brown but were actually more like a million different shades of coffee.

I thought her eyes were beautiful, along with everything else about her.

God, I really need to end it with Lissa it's not right. All I can think about is Max, all the time and it's not fair to her.

I have to do it, I have to break up with her today.

Max and I make our way through the front doors of the school and I remove my arm from around her shoulders, not wanting Lissa to get upset. Although she's probably going to get upset anyways.

"Are you okay?" Max asked me raising an eyebrow.

"What? yeah I'm fine, just thinking"

"About what?"

If only I could tell her that she was exactly what I was thinking about.

"You know stuff. Listen I've gotta go do something, I'll see you in class" I said as I walked away from Max.

I weaved my way through the hallways, making my way towards Lissa's locker.

Wait. Is breaking up with her right _now _a good idea? I mean, it's not even first period yet and I can't screw up her entire day just because I'm a selfish dick. Or maybe I'm just stalling... I wish I could talk to Max, at least she'd slap some sense into me.

Okay, I need to man up, I sound like a wuss.

"Morning!" Lissa says cheerfully as I walk up to her, dammit this is going to be hard.

I give her a small smile and she closes her locker shut and takes a hold of my hand. She's wearing a red sweater covered in white snowflakes with dark blue jeans and tall brown boots.

As we make our way to her classroom she begins talking about christmas, "Soo, what do you want for christmas? I mean I know it's only the middle of November but I like to get my christmas shopping done early" she leaned her head on my shoulder.

Jesus Christ. She's making this a lot harder, I wish she weren't such a good person. That sounded bad, I just mean that it would be easier if she weren't so nice.

"What? Oh um, you really don't need to get me anything" I say, scratching the back of my head with my free hand.

"Fang, don't be silly. If you don't tell me I'm going to end up getting you something you hate" Lissa said, playfully rolling her eyes.

How could I tell her that we weren't going to be together by christmas? I feel like such an asshole. It's not like I started dating Lissa with the mindset that she'd be a distraction from Max. Or maybe I did... I don't know.

All I know is that for a while I really did believe that I was in love with her but I guess that maybe I was just convinced that I loved her so that I could deny how I felt about Max.

As we arrived at her first period class room I stopped us and pulled her aside, "Listen Lissa I really need to talk to you about somethi-" the bell suddenly rang, incredibly loud may I add which ruined my chances of breaking up with her.

"We'll talk later okay? I wouldn't want either of us to be late for class" Lissa smiled and kissed my cheek as she walked into her classroom.

I sighed as I walked down the hall towards my first period math class and took my seat beside Max, I dropped my head onto my desk and groaned. How the hell do people break up with other people?

"Woah there, why so glum chum?" Max laughed at my public display of frustration.

"I'm just tired" I said as I lifted my head off of my desk and took out last night's homework, which was probably all wrong anyways because I was unable to think straight.

"Oh my god! The great Fang, master of the perfect sleep schedule is _tired?!"_ Max put a hand over her heart in fake shock.

"Yeah yeah laugh it up Max, at least I'm always ready on time wheres as you're usually still in your pyjamas when I get to your house in the morning" I smirked at the memory of Max opening her front door while wearing her rubber ducky panama pants as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hey! don't pretend like you don't loooveee my ducky pj's, I know you're jealous of me but you don't need to give me sass" Max winked as she pulled out her own homework which she had surprisingly actually done.

I was about to say something about her comment on me being jealous of her pyjama pants when our teacher raised his voice and told us to settle down.

Needless to say math class was turning out to be as uneventful as usual.

This is going to be a long day.

* * *

When the bell rang signalling the end of last period and the start to the weekend, I was relieved. I'd manadged to avoid Lissa all day, and yes I know that's not the way to handle the situation but I'm a coward alright?

"Wanna hang out tonight?" I asked Max as we walked down the sidewalk towards our houses, "I have plans with Dylan..." Max trailed off regretfully.

"Tomorrow then?" I asked hopefully, "As long as it's after 12PM, I need my beauty sleep" Max said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

I chuckled, she still looked gorgeous even though she was trying to joke around, I'm so screwed.

Even after I do break up with Lissa, what am I supposed to do then? I can't just break up with her and then ask Max out five seconds later, like Max would even say yes.

She made it very clear this summer that she didn't feel the same way as I did, but I wasn't ready to give up, at least not yet.

But whether Max felt the same way or not, it wasn't right for me to lead Lissa on like I've been doing this past week, I'm only hurting her and I don't want to do that.

It had stopped snowing sometime during school and now the ground was covered with a thin sheet of clean white snow, enough that we left footprints as we walked along the sidewalk.

"Excited for our annual tree chopping road trip next weekend?" Max asked as she wrapped her arms around herself, still refusing to wear her jacket.

Near the end of November every year, our families would take a road trip down to this huge Christmas tree lot where we got to take a ride on a horse carriage and then hike out and cut down our own christmas tree.

It was a three hour drive but it was tradition and we always had to get up super early because our mom's wanted extra time to go christmas shopping at some huge outlet mall. To be honest I don't even know what the difference between an outlet mall and a regular mall are but it was still loads of fun.

"You mean am I excited to do all the work again?" I raised an eyebrow at Max, Iggy and I usually got stuck chopping the christmas tree's down since neither my father nor Max's is in the picture.

"Hey! I would help but you and Iggy have so some of manly pride when it comes to tree chopping, it's not _my _fault that you two insist on doing all the work" Max exclaimed as she hit my shoulder.

"It's our duty, what can I say? Were extreme gentlemen" I replied as I noticed Max rolling her eyes.

Max just burst out laughing and continued until we got home, "Oh god, you're really funny Fangles" Max said as she wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye as I walked her up to her front door.

"What's so funny?" I asked her as we stopped in front of her front door, I took a step closer.

Max moved her hair out of her face and coughed "The idea of you and Iggy being gentlemanly is what's so funny" Max trailed off, her expression suddenly becoming serious.

"So I uh... I guess I'll see you later then" Max said awkwardly as she turned to unlock her front door.

Just as she'd turned her key in the lock I decided to do something totally on impulse.

"Max" I said, she turned around but before she could answer my I put my hands on either side of her face and crashed my lips against hers.

She didn't react at first but just as I was about to pull away she wrapped her arms around my neck and tangled her fingers in my hair.

I pulled her as close to me as I possibly could, like I'd lose her forever if I let go, we stayed like that, standing on her front porch making out for what felt like an eternity before we ran out of breath.

Our lips parted but we stayed there with our arms wrapped around each other. Max closed her eyes and sighed and then put a hand on my chest as if she were going to push me away but couldn't find the strength to.

"Fang we can't do this, I-I can't do this and you should't be doing this, it's wrong on so many levels and I-" I cut Max off, "I know what it seems like but-" this time Max was the one cutting me off.

"No Fang" Max pushed me away and opened her front door. "You're with Lissa and I... I can't do this okay. I just can't" and with that she walked inside and slammed the door behind her.

I was left standing there, the image of Max walking away from me left in my head. After staring at her door for a couple seconds I shook my head to clear my thoughts, which didn't work and walked down the porch steps and over to my house.

I don't know why I'd kissed Max, I mean I knew _why _but I wish I'd waited until after I'd broken up with Lissa but I couldn't wait. Looking at Max, her cheeks pink from the cold and her lips chapped I just couldn't stop myself.

I sound like a horny teenage boy.

Well, I am a horny teenage boy but that's besides the point. I jut screwed everything up with Max and with Lissa.

What am I supposed to do now?

* * *

**Max's POV**

Holy freaking crap.

I just made out with my best friend, again. Except last time he didn't have a girlfriend. What did I do? The second his lips touched mine I should've pushed him away.

We just got back to normal and this is going to screw everything up, I thought about pushing him away but my heart kind of overpowered my head and I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back like there was no tomorrow.

I don't know why he kissed me in the first place, he was totally in love with Lissa, it was obvious. It was clearly a huge mistake.

After I practically slammed my door in Fang's face I put my back against it and slid down to the floor, laying my head in on my knees as I curled them up towards my chest.

I felt the tears start to roll down my cheeks just as my phone started dinging. It was a text from Dylan saying he'd be over in ten minutes, I need to get myself together.

I stood up and kicked my shoes off into the hall closet then went upstairs and threw my backpack on the floor and collapsed on my bed while I stared at the ceiling.

Dylan would be here soon and if I keep staring at my ceiling I'll fall asleep so I get up and head downstairs. As I walk past my kitchen my eyes fall on one of the cabinets in the far corner of the kitchen. My mom was never really a bid drinker so whenever we had house parties or something people would always give her wine or something of the sort which she then put in that one cupboard.

I walk towards it and slowly open it, I was never much of a drinker myself. I rarely went to parties and whenever I did I was never one to get wasted although I have been drunk a few times throughout high school.

I grabbed a bottle of vodka from the very back of the cupboard, knowing my mom would't even notice that it was missing and unscrewed the cap.

Ella was sleeping and Nudge's tonight and my mom was working late hours again so I didn't have much to worry about, besides Dylan who wouldn't really care that I was drinking since he was known to party a lot himself.

I don't know what possessed me to drink but I unscrewed the cap and grabbed a glass and filled it halfway, filling the other half with some lemonade from the fridge. Vodka was really gross on it's own so there was no way I was going to drink it straight.

As I choked down a few sips I heard a knock at the door. I made my way out of the kitchen and across the hardwood floor of my living room to the front door where I would see Dylan standing.

I opened the door and smiled, "Come on in" I said, Dylan gave me a strange look and came inside.

"Max, are you drinking?" he asked me, raising and eyebrow, "Yup" I said popping the 'p' as I took another sip.

"Can I have some?" Dylan asked, setting down his bag on the floor and slipping off his coat.

I just walked into the kitchen and poured him a glass of the same stuff I was drinking and handed it to him.

Our original plan for the night was to study, Dylan, despite having a reputation as a dumb jock was actually pretty smart and a really good tutor.

I guess our plan kind of just flew out the window since we were now sitting on the couch drinking in silence.

"So, why is the great Max getting drunk before the sun goes down?" Dylan asked me.

I noticed his hair had grown out and I could smell the scent of his cologne, we was wearing a white t-shirt under a red flannel with plain blue jeans on. When you compare him and Fang they're polar opposites.

Dylan has bright blue eyes, like the sky on a hot summer day in the middle of July and Fang's eyes were like a dark pool of black, like the night sky with gold flecks in them and if you looked close enough they almost looked like stars.

I was comforted by the idea of having two friends that were complete opposites, I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm starting to feel like Fang might not always be around anymore, at the rate things are currently going with us.

Things like this had never been an issues during freshman and sophomore year so why now?

It's not like girls haven't liked Fang before and it's not like boys haven't liked me either and as far as I could tell Fang had never shown interest in any girl, except for me I guess, which I find hard to believe anyways.

I wish things hadn't changed. Why now? One more year after this and high school would've been over, along with all the unnecessary drama that came with it.

"I'm not getting drunk" I laughed, although I admit that the three drinks I'd already had were starting to make me feel a slight buzz. Dy;an just laughed in respond so mine and filled his cup with some more vodka.

"Max you're totally buzzed" he said nudging my shoulder.

"Okay maybe a little" I said rolling my eyes, I should probably stop drinking but I like the feeling.

When you drink enough it makes you feel kind of numb, like nothing really matters, or at least thats how it makes me feel.

I get this feeling like a million butterflies are rising up in my stomach and suddenly all my worries kind of fade away. I find that when you drink enough nothing really seems to matter.

I closed my eyes and smiled beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol a little more. I suddenly burst out laughing for no reason and looked over at Dylan to find he was doing the same.

"You realllyy wanna know why I'm drinking?" I asked Dylan, chugging some more of my drink and then pouring myself some more once I'd finished.

"I realllyy wanna know" Dylan replied with a smile on his face.

"Because Fang kissed me" I stated simply, I don't get why it mattered know, shouldn't I be happy? The guy I'm in love with made out with me today, that's supposed to be a good thing.

"Poor Max, the person she loves kissed her. That must be awful" Dylan said in a sarcastic tone.

"Don't say it like _that" _I stressed, "He's still dating Lissa, remember? I don't even know why he kissed me" I told Dylan the same thoughts I'd been thinking to myself earlier.

"You wanna know why he kissed you Max? He kissed you because he loves you" Dylan said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"He doesn't love me, he loves Lissa, DUUHH" I said giggling.

Dylan laughed bitterly, I guess he's not as much of a happy drunk as I am I thought. Wait am I drunk? I can't really remember the last time I got drunk. Maybe it was last summer? I don't know and honestly I don't really care.

"Actually, I love Lissa but Fang. God, Fang loves you max, it's obvious. I think everyone knows it. I think even Lissa knows it" Dylan said a I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"That's silly" I giggled, Fangy would never love me, that's just ridiculous. I'm Max, Fang's best friend, not Fang's _girlfriend. _

"If only you could see it" Dylan sighed, leaning his head on top of mine.

"Hey Dylan" I said, thinking aloud.

"Yeah?"

"I think I'm drunk" I said as I noticed that the numb feeling had now spread throughout my body.

That's the thing about being drunk, you can't really tell. You say stupid things when you're drunk and in your head you tell yourself that you can stop being stupid whenever you want but in reality you can't.

You can't stop the word vomit from pouring out of your mouth.

Dylan just laughed at me and smiled, "Hey Max, you're still in love with him right? Fang?" he asked me cautiously, as if he might upset me.

"Yeeesss" I slurred.

"And, and I'm still in love with Lissa so, do you mind if I try something?" Dylan's voice got quieter as his question ended.

"Dylan, were friends, you can try whatevverr you want" I said with a huge grin on my face, I don't think I felt happy, I was certainly still upset about Fang but I can't top smiling because my insides feel all warm and fuzzy.

"If you want to stop then just say something" and before I knew what was going on, Dylan's lips had crashed down on mine.

They were warm and strangely comforting, I kissed Dylan back and wrapped my arms around his neck.

This wasn't like kissing Fang, Dylan and I were both in love with other people so this didn't mean anything. It couldn't mess up our friendship because there were no romantic feelings involved.

Eventually we separated, breathing is still kind of necessary even when you're making out with someone.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, "I wonder who that could be" I said as I clumsily got up off of the couch and made my way to the front door.

As I yanked it open I came face to face with none other than Fang himself.

"Oh um" I cleared my throat and stood up straight, trying to act as sober as possible.

"Sup" I said, leaving my elbow against the doorframe and placing my hand behind my head, trying to look as casual as possible.

And then I burst out laughing. Oh god someone please kill me now.

"Max? Fang asked, peering through the doorway and spotting the bottle of vodka on the living room table.

"Are you drunk" Fang asked me incredulously.

"Just a teeeennnyy weensy litttllee bit drunk" I said while I put two fingers together in front of my face to show him how little I'd had to drink, which was a total lie in case you hadn't already caught on.

"Are you drunk to?" Fang asked, stepping inside and glaring at Dylan.

Dylan just laughed, "I'll take that and a yes..." Fang said with a look of disapproval on his face.

"Oh Fangy just take a chill pill and stop being so serious" I said, making my way over to the closet where my car keys were hanging. I wanted to go for a drive and clear my head, I couldn't think straight with Fang here.

"Max I think you should give me your keys" Fang said, slowly stepping towards me. I didn't want to give him my keys, he was the reason I needed to get out of here in the first place.

Dylan got up, stumbling a little bit as he made his way over to Fang and I, I don't think he's as drunk as I am.

"Max I think Fang's right, we've both had a lot to drink" Dylan said.

I saw Fang shoot Dylan a grateful look, how dare they exchange glances about me. They don't even like each other! I'm just going to leave and let them continue they're bormance since they're clearly in love with each other now.

"NO!" I yelled at Fang as I slipped on my shoes and started walking down the front porch steps.

Fang chased after me as I made my way to my mom's car, her co-worker who was also working late had given her a ride to work today.

"Max you can't drive, it's dangerous" Fang said trying to reason with me.

"You know what _Fang?!" _I spit out his name like it was poison, "You are the reason I'm leaving, okay? I need to get out of here I just need... I need to leave" I said as I unlocked the car and climbed in the front seat behind the wheel.

"Max!" Fang cried out, he tried to open the door but I'd already locked the door, I wish he'd just go away.

"I'm sorry" I said, although I don't know what I was sorry for.

I started up the car and drove away, getting to the end of my street and turning the corner, not really sure where I was headed as long as I was far away from Fang.

I don't think I even remembered to lock my front door, huh. Oh well, Fangy'll do it for me.

I giggled to myself and kept driving, suddenly I stopped laughing, I feel dizzy..

My vision started to blur in and out of focus, maybe Fang was right, maybe I shouldn't be driving.

I want to take a nap, yeah, a nap would be nice, I just have to turn the car around and head home and then I can crawl into the warm fuzzy covers of my bed, that'd be nice.

Not paying attention to where I am or what lane I'm in, I start to turn the car around.

Suddenly I hear a huge crashing sound.

And then, I'm asleep, everything's gone black.

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**A/N So this chapter ended up being waayyy longer than I planned but I guess that's a good thing! Hopefully it makes up for the cliffhanger! Sorry about that (well not really) :p**


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm actually updating when I said I would (ish), that's new. I hope you all had an amazing Halloween! It poured all day where I love and then it snowed (gotta love Canada) anyways, hope you guys enjoy! :)**

**Also, am I supposed to do a disclaimer? Apparently I'm supposed to do one or I'll be arrested or something so...**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't any Maximum Ride characters in this chapter, any of my previous chapters or any of my future chapters etc.**

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**Fang's POV**

My ears were ringing.

This isn't happening, this is all a bad dream. I'm not at the hospital right now, watching various nurses and doctors rush Max down the corridor into emergency surgery.

But it was happening... it _is _happening and I can't believe how lifeless Max looks, her face pale with a large gash on her left cheek, blood smeared on her face.

She looks horrible, she looks dead. But Max can't be dead, she can't die, I won't let her die because if Max dies so do I.

I was pushed away from the doors leading to where they were taking Max by a doctor "Sir you can't go in there" he says as I stand there, my eyes wide open refusing to believe what's going on.

"But I-I, I can't leave her! I won't..." my voice quieting to a whisper, "I promise you were going to do everything we can to save your girlfriend but she's going to be in surgery for hours, I'm sorry but the only thing you can do right now is sit and wait. We'll let you know her condition as soon as we do" the doctor looked at me solemnly and walked through the double doors away from me.

I was left standing there, staring down the hallway where Max was no less than a minute ago.

I feel a hand on my shoulder "Fang, there's nothing you can do right now bud, come sit down", I hear Iggy's soft voice behind me, I turn around and look at him, trying to find the words I want to say but my tongue can't seem to form them, I feel like my vocal chords have been ripped out.

Iggy leans and and hugs me "It'll be okay, come on", he says as he guides me towards the waiting room where the rest of Max's family and friends sit.

Iggy's trying to hold it together, whether it's for me or for Ella, who's sitting with her mother crying in the back or the room I can't tell, but I'm grateful.

Max's mom is trying to comfort Ella but I can see the tears slipping out of her eyes as well, Nudge sits next to Ella sniffling and trying to keep herself busy wit her phone. Iggy and I sit down with them and none of us say anything.

This is Dylan's fault, if he hadn't been hanging out with Max so much maybe she wouldn't have been drinking, maybe she'd still be at home right now safe and sound.

Speak of the devil, Dylan bursts into the waiting room right on cue but stops when he sees all of us sitting here.

He doesn't say anything, I don't even know what he's doing here.

"You son of a bitch" I whisper, loudly enough for him to hear me, "What?" he asks me, taking a step closer. Wrong move. "I said..." I trail off, standing up to walk over to him, "You son of a bitch!" I try to throw a punch but Iggy grabs me and holds me back.

"This isn't my fault!" Dylan yells back at me, I'm shaking with anger and fear that I might never get to hear Max's voice again. I'll never hear her laugh or see her smile, she'll never call me crying in the middle of the night, looking for comfort.

I'll never hug her again, never get to spend hours with her just sitting in silence listening to music. And Max, she'll never grow up, she'll never get married, go to college or have kids or fall in love or get married.

Max won't be able to travel the world or sing or dance or have fun. If Max doesn't survive she'll be six feet deep within a month. It's the thought that Max could die tonight and there's nothing I can do to help, nothing but yell at the person responsible.

"Of course it's your fault! She wouldn't have been so drunk if it weren't for you! You just couldn't stay away from her could you? And now she's dying and it's all your fault!" I scream at Dylan but not making another move towards him, punching him wouldn't fix anything.

Dylan just chuckled, "Don't you get it? You're the one to blame here Fang. Max had been drinking long before I even got over there." he spat at me.

"Max doesn't just get drunk for fun Dylan, and I know that because she's _my_ best friend" I swear to god he'll pay, he's not going to pin the blame on someone else.

"Oh my god! Could you be any more oblivious?! She was drinking because she's in love with you! She was drinking because of _you _Fang! It's not my goddamn fault!" Dylan replied, out of breath, his chest heaving.

"Someone call me when there's news" Dylan said, walking our of the ER waiting room.

My mouth had dropped open slightly, I'd stop shaking but I couldn't move and my ears were ringing again. He's lying, he has to be lying. This can't be my fault, oh god this can't be my fault.

But then I thought back to our kiss earlier today... it is my fault, it's all my fault.

If Dylan was telling the truth then I'd royally screwed up, if I had just told Max how I felt this wouldn't be happening right now, but it is, it is happening.

I look over and see Lissa standing in the entrance of the waiting room, she'd seen everything that had just happened between Dylan and I.

"Go" Iggy said, nodding at Lissa, I just stared back at him blankly until he shoved me with his arm and I came back to my senses.

I walked over to Lissa and clenched my teeth, I'd screwed over Max and I'd screwed over Lissa. I couldn't do anything right, all I did was hurt people.

"Can we go somewhere and talk for a minute? I won't keep you long I just... I know you want to be here for Max" Lissa said. I just nodded my head and followed her outside, the cold November air not phasing me one bit.

"Oh god Fang I'm so sorry" Lissa said, her eyes filled with sadness as she wraps her arms around my neck, holding me in a tight embrace.

She pulled away and wrapped her jacket tightly around herself, I open my mouth but again, find myself at a loss for words.

"This might not be the best time to do this but, I'm breaking up with you Fang" Lissa says, suddenly finding a great interest in her shoes.

"Wh-" I start to say but Lissa cuts me off, "Fang, you heard Dylan in there. Max is in love with you and I know you love her back and she needs you right now. I've known you loved her for a while I just... I didn't want to admit it to myself and maybe you didn't either but it's clear now." Lissa said before I could interject.

When I stay silent Lissa let's out a long sigh, "Text me or something when there's any news on Max, I'm sorry", Lissa says. After kissing me on the cheek and laying a sympathetic hand on my shoulder she walks away, leaving me standing outside in the cold air, watching my breath come out in puffs.

I walk back inside the waiting room, numb, and explain everything that happened as best as I can to Max's family and to the police.

As far as they could tell Max turned the car around while still in one lane. Meaning there were cars driving behind her, she just turned around without even thinking about that fact that she had to pull over or switch lanes.

Max ran head on into a pickup truck, the driver wasn't seriously injured, they told us he has a few cuts and bruises as well as a broken arm and some minor flesh wounds but other than that he was fine.

But Max... Max was still in surgery.

She has multiple broken ribs, serious injuries to her right leg and arm and she'd hit her head hard on her dashboard. They didn't know the extent of her head injuries yet.

**(A/N Guys keep in mind that I'm not a doctor so if any injuries or anything medically related I describe ends up being inaccurate or doesn't make any sense I'm sorry)**

Max's mother let's out a gasp and pulls Ella into a tight hug. Iggy was trying to help calm Nudge down and I, as usual, was speechless.

None of us could do anything to help and I think that's why we were all so upset. Max has been through so much in her life, this isn't fair. This shouldn't have happened to her.

* * *

After several hours of sitting in the waiting room, not paitiently might I add, Max's surgeon walks through the doors. I immediatley bolt out of my seat, "What's going on?" I ask.

"I'm going to need Max's immediate family members to come with me, there are some things we need to discuss" the doctor says, as Ms. Martinez and Ella stand up and look at me, "It's okay, he can come" Ms. Martinez says.

I might as well be Max's immediate family, but I'm grateful that Ms. Martinez let's me come with them even though this is all my fault. I don't deserve her kindness.

We follow the doctor down a quiet corridor towards a small room that appears to be his office. Ella and Ms. Martinez sit down where I opt to stay standing, leaning against the wall.

Max's surgeon, doctor, whatever you wanna call him, sits down behind his desk and claps his hands together, he looks tired. It only makes sense, he just spent hours operating on Max.

"Max is out of surgery, and she's stable, for now" he says, I can hear it in his voice, the bad news is coming.

"What happened? I mean how is she? What's wrong? Can we see her?" Max's mom spits out four questions at once.

"One of her broken ribs punctured her lung, for now it's stable but Max needs assistance to breathe. She'll need multiple skin grafts on her left leg to repair the

damage. Several of the fingers on her right hand were crushed on impact but we won't know how functional they'll be until Max wakes up. We had to give her

multiple stitches on her left cheek and on her right arm. When the front windshield shattered it sent several shard of glass towards her, which is why she

required so many stitches. She lost a lot of blood and she's going to require a blood transfusion as quickly as possible. For now it's best you don't see her, there

are still some other minor issues that we need to address" the doctor manages to say without one of us interrupting.

"Oh my god" Ella whispers, putting her hand over her mouth, "I'm sorry I um, I need a minute" Ella says as she gets up and hurriedly walks out of the room.

"You said she needs a blood transfusion?" I ask the doctor, "Yes, are you her blood type?" the doctor asks, "Yes" I reply. I hate needles, but if this is all I can do to help then I'll do it. It might seem weird that I know I'm Max's blood type, but when we were younger our school had some huge blood drive thing that Max convinced me to participate in even though I hate needles, so does she, I guess that just makes her a better person.

Anyways, that's how we found out that were the same blood type.

"Now there's one more thing we need to discuss", the doctor says, great, more bad news.

"You might not want her boyfriend in here for this ma'm" the doctor says, "No, it's alright" Ms. Martinez says without hesitation, not even mentioning that I'm not Max's boyfriend.

"Alright... well. We need to look at all possible options here and we know Max had alcohol in her system at the time of the accident, which impaired her judgement. However, we need to make sure we've ruled out everything... is there any possibility that this was a suicide attempt? After taking a look at Max's medical records from a few years ago w-" I cut the doctor off.

"There's no way. Max wouldn't do something like that" I say, standing up straighter.

"I understand, but Max went through depression after her friends suicide and it's very likely that, that could have triggered an attempt on her own life" the doctor says, trying to calm me down.

"I know what she went through. And it's because of that, that Max would never do what he did to her. She would never purposely try and leave all her friends and family behind. There's no debating it, Max didn't do this on purpose, she was drunk. That's _it_" I say clenching my jaw.

My hands are bawled up into fists at my side a I storm out of the room, I can't be in there anymore, listening to him make false accusations as if he even knows what Max went through.

Max wouldn't do what Sam did, she was part of the aftermath of his suicide and she would never risk making anyone feel the same way that he made her feel when he left, she just wouldn't.

* * *

Once they took my blood, I'm required to stay seated for a while incase I faint. I already felt sick, my head started spinning the moment I found out Max had been in an accident.

Maybe if I'd showed up at Max's house earlier, or if I'd never kissed her in the first place, I could've prevented this. I could have done something to help, to stop what happened.

Max could be safe right now.

After they cleared me I was allowed to head back to the waiting room, I stopped in the cafeteria on my way there to get everyone coffee. It was now 3AM and we'd all been here for 8 hours.

Once I grabbed everyone a coffee I made my way back towards the waiting room, handing everyone their respective drinks.

"I'll be back in thirty minutes, I'm gonna drive Nudge home" Iggy says, standing up and looking over at Nudge. "No way, I'm not leaving" Nudge says, staying glued to her seat.

She looks and sounds exhausted, we all do.

"Nudge, your parents have called you at least 5 times within the past hour, you can't do anything by sitting here. Max would want you to go and get some rest, besides, the odds of them letting anyone but her family in to see her anytime soon are slim. I promise you'll be the first to hear if there's any news. Now come on" Iggy says crossing his arms.

Nudge sighs and reluctantly gets out of her chair, "Alright" as Nudge shrugs her coat on Ella yawns and gets up out of her seat.

"Mind if I come with you? Sitting around here is just making me anxious" Ella says, knowing Nudge and Iggy won't mind.

"Nudge? Do you think your parents would mind if Ella stayed with you? I don't want her home alone" Ms. Martinez says, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Of course Ms. Martinez" Nudge says giving her a weak smile, "I'm guessing there's no way I can convince you to go home?" Ms. Martinez says, looking at me hopefully.

"Excuse my language but there's no way in hell I'm leaving" I say. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you", she smiles and takes a sip of her coffee.

"I'll be back after I drop them off", Iggy says, making his way out of the hospital with Ella and Nudge.

Soon after they leave the same doctor that spoke to us before tells us that we can see Max now, but only one at a time.

After Max's mom sees her she comes out and tells me I can go in.

I take a deep breath as I stand outside the doors leading into Max's private room. I'm afraid of what I'll see, I'm afraid I'll walk in and Max's heart monitor will go flat. I'm so afraid for her and the only person that can calm me down is Max herself. But she's the one that needs me right now, I can't be selfish.

I suck in one more breath before grabbing the door handle and walking in. I feel my eyes start to water the second I see Max. She's lying on her hospital bed, she looks so pale, so lifeless.

There's a tube stuck down her throat, helping her breathe and her left cheek in covered in stitches. Her leg and arm were both wrapped securely in large, thick, white bandages. She has a blanket tucked securely around her torso so I can't seethe damage there, and I was glad for that.

I slowly make my way towards Max's lifeless body and sit down next to her. I take her uninjured hand in mine and rest my head on it.

"God Max I'm so sorry, I'm so, so, sorry" I say even though I know she won't answer me.

"I know you can't hear me Max, or maybe you can I don't know but... I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone in my entire life. You're strong, you're so goddamn strong and you can't let go. You've been through so much and made it so far, you can't give up now Max. You have so much left to do, so much left to see. I know you might want to give up and... and if you really can't hold on then that's okay. But I just... I love you. You need to know that, I love you and I think you love me too. So please, fight, fight to stay alive"

I feel a tear slip out of my eye, I close my eyes and lay my head back down on Max's hand.

After sitting for a while and talking to Max, even though she can't hear me, I kiss her hand and gently set it back down next to her.

"I'll be back soon Maxie" I smile and exit the room. I'm exhausted and I need some sleep, but there's no way I'm leaving, so the waiting room chair will have to make do for now.

I sit down and rest my hand on my head, I start to feel myself drift off. I don't care that I'm sitting in an incredibly uncomfortable chair in the hospital waiting room, I'm too tired to care.

Soon my eyes close and I'm too tired to pry them open again.

* * *

**A/N I fel like that was a really short chapter I'm sorry :( But I'm honestly so tired and I have school tomorrow so I'm going to try and get some sleep. Thank you all for the great reviews so far, keep it up! I promise I'll try and update before this weekend!**


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